Salvation
Langston Hughes is the author of the “Salvation,” an excerpt from the Big Sea. The piece was published by permission of Hill and Wang in 1968. In this work, Hughes, while targeting general readers refashion and recollect a personal experience with the region from a child’s perspective. The author recounted a childhood theatrical incident when he was twelve years old; he lied to have been saved during a tiny church sermon.
This piece stood out to me because it is perhaps a demonstration of what happens to children whenever an altar call is made, and the preacher asks them to get saved. Like Hughes, many teens might expect to see Jesus while being prayed for something that does not happen. His friend Westley, for instance, whispered to him, “God damn! I am weary of sitting here. Let us get up and give our lives to Jesus.” (Hughes 1).He did it and was saved.
The overriding idea is when everyone, including his aunt, prayed for him in a mighty howl of voices and sighs. His aunt even knelt at his knees, crying while songs and prayers spun all around him in the church. He quietly waited for Jesus only to feel ashamed of himself, wondering what God thought about his friend. He decided to lie to save more anxiety by saying that he had experienced Jesus.
When I read through to read this piece, I would relate with Hughes’ experience where preachers persuade the congregation to get saved. I could imagine how non-believers during an alter call wait serenely for that soft voice for Jesus saying you are my child; I love you.
A recommended piece of writing is “Leading your child to Christ by Lary Fowler. It is easy to read the article available at focus on the family website. In this article, Fowler talks of respecting God’s authority and fearing His name shapes up a child’s journey in following Christ. I learned about this article when reading about how to raise a God-fearing family. The article connects to the item from the class because it focuses on leading a child to God through salvation in Christ. It is found from the link focusonthefamiliy.com