One of my better friends in the world is Bill Chiaravelle.
Bill is a graphic artist, branding expert and is also an elder at Antioch. His resume of branding is as long as any out there… Microsoft, FedEX, BP, World Relief to name just a few.
The coolest thing, however, is that he just spent the better part of this year rebranding and overhauling all the materials for an anti-trafficking organization working in Cambodia. Giving away 1,000 hours is infinitely more valuable than giving away 1,000 dollars.
Bill and his wife Leila are true examples of what it means to “Give Your Life Away.” In fact, when Matt Smith coined the phrase that we use as our mantra at Antioch, it was in reply to something Bill had just said as we were all deep in conversation over some Thai food.
Recently, Bill and I were discussing The Justice Conference and he said some pretty powerful words.
To paraphrase, “Things like this can become a commodity… like Thomas Kinkade, but for us this (justice) is rooted in the character of God. It’s not something that passes with fashion. We do this because it is timeless and universal. Even if the idea of justice became overused in culture and passed from fashion, we’d still be doing this because it’d still be on God’s heart and people would still be made in his image.”
Bill’s commitment to justice as a matter of devotion and obedience to God is a lot like something Dwight Eisenhower once said.
Eisenhower remarked on his civil rights policies on October 12, 1956 that “We have been pursuing this quietly, not tub-thumping, and we have not tried to claim political credit. This is a matter of justice, not of anything else.”
The quote above is taken from a book called, A Matter of Justice by David Nichols, which looks at Eisenhower’s civil rights record in light of a lot of recently released material from the journals and meetings of his presidency. The book contends that “Ike” hasn’t received as much credit on the issue of civil rights as he deserved. The reason, argues Nichols, is because much of what “Ike” did wasn’t public or visible. It was, however, very much on the forefront of his mind and at the top of his policies. For him, it wasn’t a matter of fashion, but justice.
I’m not an Eisenhower expert, but the idea of justice being compelling regardless of fashion is something that resonates deep within me. It is also a belief that operates profoundly in many of my friends… like Bill.
