Recently I watched the fairly new documentary, 'Billy Graham: An Extraordinary Journey.'
The program relates a lot of interesting incidents from the life of the world famous evangelist.
One of these is how Billy Graham personally took down the segregation ropes at his 1953 Chattanooga crusade.
As the crusade was about to begin, Graham noticed there were ropes segregating whites who sat in the front from blacks who sat in the back.
Graham immediately saw this as contrary to the message of the Bible and it troubled him, so he asked the head usher to remove the ropes.
The usher refused.... so Graham took matters in his own hands... as he stepped down from the platform and removed the ropes on his own -- because... as he saw it... it was the right thing to do.
Graham's act of courage was a significant turning point in advancing desegregation in the South.
And it reminds us how choosing to do the right thing has a way of unleashing positive consequences -- even if it stirs up some initial controversy and conflict.
The Bible, of course, urges us to do the right thing... even saying 'to know the right thing to do and not do it is sin' (Jas. 4:17).
It's easy to talk ourselves out of doing the right thing when fear and unbelief rule our hearts.
But God has given His grace to rule our hearts... so we'd have the power to do what we know is right by faith... and bring His kingdom to the world.