Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.
He would have been 79.
He was shot dead when he was only 39.
39 years old and King had already begun to change a nation and inspire the world.
Wow.
I'm inspired by King - if you'd like to read some awe inspiring stuff consider the latest book on and by King himself.
Martin Luther King Jr. an autobiography... a collection of his journals, letters. speeches and sermons - in chronological order.
It's a must read for world changers.
I'm encouraged that King was a real man, complete with doubts, fears, conviction, sin, hope, vision, mistakes, suffering, and redemption (large size redemption). King believed in a world that could be restored. So do I.
C.S. Lewis suggests that when Christ died and rose again time itself began to work in reverse... as though the whole created order is on it's way back to the point of creation - perfect wholeness... I'm a fan of that idea. I believe that life is stronger than death - I know that love conquers all in the end. King, witnessing from Heaven, is part of the great cloud of witnesses that cheers us on and invites us to finish what God started.
There are some Christians that spend their whole lives hiding and hope that Christ will return to save the day. That's not me. I know Christ is coming and I want to be ready... I'm spending my days fighting, hoping, living against despair and death and winning the world for Him... I want to change the world. It's a large and costly prayer but I mean it.
Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. for a life well lived and the dream... now, to live it out.
4 comments:
Amen! A group of my friends came together on Monday night and watched a great PBS documentary on MLKII called "Citizen King". It's worth checking out.
There are a lot of parallels between the way he affected/changed America with the way I think we are helping to change the Army. He could have said, "I hate America. It is messed up and it needs to be overthrown." Instead he said, "I love America and what its founders stood for. Let's reclaim our dignity and righteousness. Let's put it right again."
I downloaded an audio book of his sermons last week from Itunes called "A Knock At Midnight" and they are fantastic. The guy was a genius and a prophet and I wish he were still around.
I'm going to pick up the book you mentioned.
Hi- let's balance things out with a January 12 blog by Richard John Neuhaus at firstthings.com distinguishing between the 'early' King and the 'late' King.
grace,
sec
Just got to visit the MLK Jr. museum again in Atlanta, the Church where he got his start, and his birth house. Pretty stunning stuff. Maybe the best preacher ever. (450 sermons a year!)
As for teh early and late King Jr., his failings are well documented. What I like about the late King Jr. is that he started taking the fight broader and deeper. He realised that while racism was a huge problem, it was so closely interrelated with militarism and socio-economic injustice for all that he could not fight one without fighting them all. Hence his support of the anti-war and pro-workers rights movements.
While we were at the MLK museum, a friend wondered what his reaction would have been to King and the issues he was fighting for had he been around at that time. Then we wondered together what issues King would be involved with now, and whether or not we would be involved.
Interesting thought experiments to hash through with friends.
Grace,
Aaron
You write very well.
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