April 3, 2025 What Was Suppose to Kill Me Has Made Me Stronger!

“But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Corinthians 2:14).

What was Supposed to Kill Me has Made me Stronger!

Dr. John Harding Lucas, Sr.

On Tuesday of this week, one of my mentors, Dr. John Harding Lucas, Sr., the man who hired me for my first professional position, went home to be with the LORD. When he hired me to teach history at the historic Hillside High School in Durham, I was fresh out of college, having graduated a semester early, and was as green as any novice could be. The day he hired me, Dr. Lucas made me wait in the outer office while he left the campus. Was he even planning to come back and talk to me? I had no idea, but he knew something I did not understand. As a young teacher, I would be in the precarious position of instructing and managing myriad diverse personalities, some of whom were almost as old as I was. If I were going to succeed, I would need strong and enduring patience.

I waited, and waited, and waited—for three solid hours! When he finally returned, he told me I had passed the first test! If I had given up and walked out, I would never have experienced knowing and working with a man whose impact was so great that he was honored by every U.S. president from Carter to Obama! I wrote about him about a year ago so I will not be repetitive now.

Battle-tested! This is something, however, that I did not share before. In his mid-sixties, Dr. Lucas battled colon cancer and survived the toughest battle of his life. I went to Duke University Hospital to visit him and saw up close the struggle he was going through. When he returned to work, he told me about a conversation he had with his doctor. The doctor told him, “Before your battle with cancer, you would likely have lived to be about 85. “But now,” Dr. Lucas chimed in, “I am going to live to be 100!” He was 104 when he passed on Tuesday! He had been battle-tested and what was designed to kill him, only made him stronger!

Now what has the enemy concocted to take you out? I will not take time to tell you about all the schemes that were cooked up to take me down when I served as principal of a predominantly white affluent school in Bethesda, Maryland. I survived each one and grew stronger. Before that, I survived abject poverty while growing up on a sharecropping farm in the Jim Crow South. I survived vitriolic and physical racism while attending a white school in the middle grades during a desegregation experiment in the 1960s.

Spread the Fragrance! What are you dealing with now that almost feels like the hand of death? Don’t give up! Do not be afraid! Thanks be to God! “Yea though [we] walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” Those of us who are in Christ can confidently expect to triumph! So, walk in victory and spread the sweet fragrance of his knowledge everywhere you go. Dr. Lucas had a “God First” motto. He diffused the fragrance of his knowledge of Christ to others—and his battles made him stronger!

***Focus Quote:* “For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” *–2 Corinthians 2:15 (NKJV)***

Note: Some years back, when Dr. Lucas’s son, John Lucas, Jr., the famous basketball player, and NBA coach, spoke for our Walter Johnson H.S. graduation, Dr. Lucas called me afterward and asked, “Did the boy do alright?” Dr. Lucas had a wonderful sense of humor. After I sang “Through it All” at his retirement celebration in 1985, he jokingly told me that he would plan to sing for me at my retirement. He did speak at my farewell banquet when I left Durham in 1989. Rest well, old soldier!

The new devotional anthology by Alton E. Sumner, ***Standing on the Promises: Defeating Fear and Breaking Barriers*, is available for purchase right now, p**ersonally signed and autographed using CashApp: $Altonesumner or Zelle: (301)921-6060.

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Reminders:

Please continue to join us at 5:14 p.m. each day as we pause to pray. Just wait and pray wherever you are. Just connect to God and pray! I will also be praying with you. There is power in agreement!

Blessings, Peace, and Love,

Alton

Dr. Alton E. Sumner

(301) 921-6060

Listening to the Soul! Lightening the Heart! Lifting the Spirit!

Dr. Alton E. Sumner

(301) 921-6060