Monday; January 15

Martin Luther King was a very charismatic and quotable speaker.  Some of the most memorable quotes from the second half of the 20th Century came from the man who lead his followers to “dream dreams” and “scale mountain tops”.  We don’t have the time or space to record all of Dr. King’s memorable quips, but, the other day I came across two that struck a chord with me.  On one occasion King challenged, “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”.  As I thought about this in light of modern times I was reminded that our effort to bring value to all lives will have peaks and valleys.  Both personally and socially, there will be eras marked by great strides and then there will be periods of struggle.  Yet, no matter where we find ourselves we must strive to do and be better.  No, we aren’t where we could be (and we may not be where we should be), but we cannot allow anyone to reverse our direction toward personal, social or racial equity.  
A second quote that touched me was his warning, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”.  Often, when we experience opposition or oppression, we want to “fight fire with fire”; but the proverbial response of an eye-for-an-eye can only blind – it will never help us to see more clearly.  To change our world, we cannot rely on conventional wisdom of retaliation – it will take the effort of people committed to the philosophy of mutual respect patterned after the God of love. 
Do we want to make a change in our world?  We can only do it when we are willing to moving forward toward a noble goal and pursuing it with brotherly love.
          Think About It!

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