Expecting a high-level committee to handle its business with dignity and decorum, Carver was shocked when he watched the speakers before him harassed and treated in a demeaning manner. He walked forward when his name was called on the third day, the last scheduled speaker, and while on the way to the front he heard one of the committee members yelp out, "I suppose if you have plenty of peanuts and watermelons you're perfectly happy?"1

Carver ignored it as an ignorant jibe, but it stung his spirit. So did seeing another member there sitting at the table with his hat on his head, leaning back in his chair, his feet propped lazily on the table before him, and smoking a black cigar. The chairman spoke to that man, asking him to remove his hat. The Southerner replied, "Down where I come from we don't accept any 'nigger's' testimony, and I don't see what this fellow can say that will have any bearing on this meeting."2

At that point Carver was tempted to withdraw from the room, but a higher thought held him steady. He reasoned that God had given him the opportunity to appear before that important committee of national representatives, so he quickly prayed to God: "I humbly prayed, asking the Lord for grace to carry out His will."3

Told he had ten minutes, Carver opened the display case he had brought with him, and began talking about the peanut and his findings from the many experiments he had conducted on its properties. So engaging were his disclosures that the jibing finally ceased, and when his allotted time of ten minutes ended all too quickly, one of the congressmen motioned that his time should be extended. The motion passed, unanimously approved, and Carver continued talking for one and three quarters hours; he displayed many of the 165 products he had made from the peanut. After several extensions of time, the committee stood and applauded him. The rest of the story is well-known.

Had he not been saved from what leads to violence, the contribution George Washington Carver was born to make to America and the world might never have been given. Violence short-circuits gifts and abilities; violence ruins our opportunities. Violence discredits and demands. George W. Carver knew this.

Telling his story later to his friend Harvey Jay Hill, Carver mentioned that after the meeting ended, the Southerner who had selfishly ridiculed him as a "nigger" was the first to come over to him and shake his hand. "Mr. Hill," Carver told his friend, "God moves in a mysterious way, 'His wonders to perform.' No matter what the circumstances, hatred and resentment must never have a place in our hearts."4 Carver had been taught and helped by Jesus.

3. As He dealt with His people, Jesus called attention to sins of vice, intent to free all who wanted release from the disposition to practice what is unworthy and harmful to themselves.

The New Testament carries several lists of self-injuring practices, and any serious looking at those lists should warn us about the penalties we pay and the losses we suffer when we defy God-given rules and try to live without divine guidance. Those who give themselves to vices later look up out of a ruined life and wish for salvation and another chance at life. Jesus came to save us from our vices, bring us to virtue, and help us to obey the counsel of godliness.