The unwavering motivation, dedication & commitment of MLK Jr.

By admin | January 17, 2012

It was Sunday night, when I remembered that we were on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr Day.  Like many other white Americans, the business of life overwhelmed me and this day of great significance crept up on me.  It is a day when the Social Media world is overwhelmed with posting some of the more famous and familiar lines of MLKJr. Yet others desire to bear witness to his failures, and to put their fingers in his wounds as a broken human, as we all are.

Like many of you, I never met Martin Luther King Jr.  I never had the chance to march with him or see the intelligent man speak.  He was unfortunately silenced before I was ever given the chance to breath.  Though, I have read many of his writings and studied several of his teachings, I can’t say I even began to understand his complex and compassionate mind.  Yet, here as Martin Luther King Jr day draws to a close, I have found time to reflect of who he was, what he did and to recapture the moments in which I stood in many places he once stood.  I feel inspired by his legacy, saddened by his martyrdom for the cause and guilty as a poor but white american who can never fully understand the position he spoke from.

I do not wish to idolize or make the man into a God, but certainly recognize him as a instrument of the creator in a season of much change.  Much like the Biblical figure of David, he was able to be used by his maker regardless of his own trespasses.  I do not wish to pretend to know what he would say to us today.  When I have stood in Memphis and in churches in which he preached within Washington DC, I didn’t feel a sense of awe but a honorable glimpse into the life that was, the struggles, the pains and reminded of my need to offer a humbling respect for him and his accomplishments.

It is a day that comes and goes for many of us without much more than uttering a small offering of respect and gratitude. For some, it is a reminder of an era in which they have emerged from in their own history.  I hope, the day will pass on as a weight for us all, a day in which we are reminded that even though we are human and faulty, that God wishes to use man to speak out against injustice.  For my atheist friends, I hope this day reminds us as a time to walk and speak in equality, and the need to use our few moments to make a difference in the lives of those stuck within ruts, mire and clay – both by their own doing and those there by the oppression of others.

Though Gandhi asked us to be the change we want to see in the world and Jesus reminded us that to love each other, we often look at situations so fatalistic as we see the burden and are cornered by the ideals of those like Plato, who said the Poor and Rich divide every city, and these two sides are constantly at war with each other. No matter how futile a situation may seem, let us move forward to bring change to these oppressive situations with the same unwavering motivation, dedication and commitment that Martin Luther King Jr did; even when it means our own flesh must bear scars or maybe estingished. He spoke for you and I as whites, for his fellow black brethren and for the bettering of people everywhere.  He his known for his commitment to racial reconciliation, but also freely spoke out on all war, injustice and violence.  He counter-cultured every oppression that opposed those whose voices could not be heard.  I won’t say what he would say today.  I wouldn’t try to adapt his words for today.  I will be inspired to do what he did, in today’s world for our new problems and our past struggles which still continue today.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. Proverbs 31:8-9

Learn more about MLK at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

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