I hope & trust this post finds you having a great day as this beautiful new day begins to dawn!
On Monday we celebrated Martin Luther King Day. On Sunday evening my family and I sat down and read the entire "I Have a Dream" speech which Dr. King delivered on August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. I want to encourage you Friends, if you have never done so, please take a few minutes and read Dr. King's entire speech - it is God-inspired, profound & inspiring.
As we read it, there was a paragraph that I had never read or heard before. It was so profound to me...I have thought of it often over the course of this week. I wanted to first share the paragraph with you and then share a few thoughts.
"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice; In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wow! So deep, so rich, so challenging, so....[indescribable]
Several things:
- Is injustice real? Absolutely! The reality is we live in a fallen, broken world and people do horrible, horrible things to one another. Racism is real. Sexism is real. Ageism is real. And, sadly, there are numerous other "-isms" that are real. It is highly likely that at some point in each of our lives we will have to, or have the opportunity to, fight for justice - in our lives or in the lives of others. One form of injustice is not greater than any other just as one sin is not greater than the other. For each of us, the greatest injustice is the one committed against us...or that touches our individual world. Is it wrong to seek justice? Absolutely not! And, I can actually make the argument that we are Biblically called to do so. It is a high calling, to seek justice...especially on behalf of someone, or a group of people, who cannot seek justice on their own.
- Dr. King challenges the Spirit right away - "we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds." Someone has done something wrong, they have acted unjustly and yet Dr. King say, "we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds." Yes, they are wrong. Yes, they have committed wrongful deeds however we are going to walk on higher ground...we are not going to be guilty of wrongful deeds. And please note, he did not say, "we must not be caught doing wrongful deeds," he said, "we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds." There is a difference.
- I find this whole paragraph inspiring and also very challenging...none more so than, "Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred." If you have ever interacted with another human being you have probably experienced some form of injustice and you get how hard it can be to not get on the slippery slope of bitterness and hatred. We think about the injustice, the person that committed it, the evil heart, the evil intention and it is easy, perhaps natural, to let bitterness and hatred grow in our hearts. The thing about bitterness and hatred however is they do nothing to the oppressor...they simply destroy the heart of the oppressed. Now the person committing the injustice has won twice...in the injustice they have committed and in our hearts. No, we will not let bitterness & hatred take root in our hearts. We will weed this most precious garden every single day.
- "We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline." My Spirit is inspired. It tells me the words I type are true.
dictionary.reference.com defines dignity as, "bearing, conduct, or speech indicative of self-respect or appreciation of the formality or gravity of an occasion or situation." When we conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity we are demonstrating respect for ourselves and we are also letting others know that the situation is serious. Please think about this for a moment. When we cuss, yell, scream, throw punches...we are actually showing a lack of respect for ourselves and we belittle the seriousness of the injustice.
dictionary.reference.com defines discipline as, "training to act in accordance with rules; drill." I suspect Dr. King chose discipline here because it would take great discipline, and supernatural strength...which he touches on in a moment, to act with dignity in the face of injustice. No doubt the natural, easy way to act would be neither dignified or disciplined...and most would understand if you acted that way. However you are too valuable, the injustice being committed is to important to act with anything less than great dignity and discipline. If it were easy, Dr. King would not have felt compelled to address it.
- And finally, "we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force." The majestic heights are not reached by everyone. Sadly many, too many, fall into the potholes of bitterness or hatred or, having avoided these traps, they slip into the gutters of lost dignity or discipline. To achieve the majestic heights will require something greater than ourselves - it will take the force of a great Spirit. "Don't tell me the size of your problem, tell me the size of your God," comes to mind. If you believe in God as I do, and as Dr. King did, then you know that all things are possible with God and that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
I want to end by sharing a scripture with you:
Micah 6: 8 (NIV)
"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your families. I will always help you any way I can.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families!
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment