Across That Bridge summary

Have you ever believed something to be true with every fiber of your being? That’s what John Lewis called faith. Faith in your convictions is one of the most important qualities an activist can possess. Having faith is to be as confident in your dreams as you are that the sky is blue and the water is wet. Nothing could make you doubt that your convictions are true.

Lewis saw his fair share of being cracked on the head with billy clubs, trampled by horses, menaced by dogs, sprayed with fire hoses, clapped in handcuffs, and thrown in prison. But his faith enabled him to stick to his convictions. He never wavered in his belief in nonviolence or in his faith that we are one human family, regardless of race.

“Patience is a virtue.” You’ve heard the expression, right? Well, it’s especially true in activism. 

This might strike you as counterintuitive. After all, in activist communities a lot of emphasis is put on decisive, forceful action, like protests. Waiting is often perceived as a product of defeatist, wishful thinking – or even weakness.

The civil rights movement was a struggle for African Americans’ legal rights. But it was also more than that. It was a commitment to prove a powerful truth: that human equality is an inalienable right. 

This right wasn’t immediately accessible to John Lewis. He grew up in the cotton fields of Alabama, where racism was a way of life. So he devoted himself to learning why his world was the way it was. He tore through every newspaper he could find, as well as books on history, political theory, and philosophy. 

Studying enough to fully own your truth is an achievement in itself. But that’s not enough to have a positive impact on the world. For that you need to act. Specifically, you need to organize actions around inclusion and inspiration, rather than exclusion and alienation. 

For Dr. King, faith had no meaning unless it could help resolve his community’s problems. He is still renowned for being a great orator. But his more important accomplishment was that he transcended the pulpit to deliver his message through action. For example, Dr. King was given a cash award when he became the youngest-ever recipient of a Nobel Prize. He used it for the benefit of others within the cause. His generosity exemplifies how to use action to demonstrate the dignity of your truth. 

The twentieth century was the most violent century in contemporary history. From 1900 to 2000, nearly 33 million soldiers and 54 million civilians were killed in war. What’s more, nearly 100 million people died as a result of political oppression. And yet we continue to resort to violence to solve conflicts. What does this say about human progress? Why have we taught ourselves to fly to the moon, but not to get along with each other? 

John Lewis believed that peace and love are more powerful than any destructive weapon. During the civil rights movement, John Lewis and his colleagues were warriors for peace. Their weapons were radical love – and the willingness to sacrifice for the betterment of society. Ultimately these weapons brought a nation to its knees.

You might not be surprised to learn that struggle is, well, incredibly difficult. The story of John Lewis’s life is enough to prove that – he was verbally abused, violently assaulted, and arrested 40 times. You might wonder whether you’d be willing to make a similar sacrifice on behalf of humankind. Is it worth the risk for a reward that you might not even live to see? But that’s a question everyone must ask, and answer, for themselves.

John Lewis believed that we all have a spark of the divine within us – our very own light. This spark takes different forms for each of us since we all have different gifts. Lewis used his life as a mission to encourage his fellow humans to fan their own sparks into flames. Our purpose in life, he believed, was to fully express our gifts so that others might see their own potential to shine.