Lessons From John Wilkes Booth

What can Christians learn from John Wilkes Booth, the cold-blooded assassin who buried a bullet into the head of Abraham Lincoln? A lot actually. While on vacation I read the book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln‘s Killer, a gripping book about the assassination of President Lincoln and the subsequent manhunt for John Wilkes Booth. While reading the book I found myself pondering Booth and seeking to learn from his tragic and tempestuous life.

Massive Passion Matters

John Wilkes Booth was a radically passionate man. He loved the American South and all that it stood for. The thought of slaves being freed and given the right to vote was abhorrent to him. He despised Abraham Lincoln, the man who, in the mind of Booth, had brought so much destruction to his beloved South. Booth would not and could not allow the Confederacy to be destroyed. His murder of Lincoln was a radical, passionate attempt to revive the dying Confederacy at the end of the Civil War. In his diary he wrote:

Until to day nothing was ever thought of sacrificing to our country’s wrongs. For six months we had worked to capture [Booth had initially planned on kidnapping Lincoln]. But our cause being almost lost, something decisive & great must be done…I struck boldly…I care not what becomes of me.

Booth’s passion was perverse, and yet at the same time I find it compelling. If Booth was willing to give his time, energy, thought, love, and even his life for the sake of the Confederacy, shouldn’t I be willing to give all that and more for the glorious cause of Christ? Booth spent his life for the sake of a cause. Shouldn’t I spend myself in the wonderful, glorious cause of Jesus Christ?

Booth’s heart pulsed with love for the Confederacy, which led him to undertake massive things for its sake. I want my heart beat with passion for God’s word, evangelism, and serving. I want my heart to be freshly filled with love for God. I want to love Christ more than the assassin loved the South.

TO BE CONTINUED…