Strength To Love

 

Strength to Love is the title of a book of sermons by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I have been reading it this week in my reflection and prayer time.  I have also been watching a number of youtube videos about Dr. King. One in particular I have included. It is worth watching. It shares his story of the weight and pressure that he was under and the strength he found to press on.

One of the sermons in "Strength to Love" is called Love in Action.  Dr. King nails the problem that we humans face:

"One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against our- selves. On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practise the very antithesis of those principles. How often are our lives characterized by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds! We talk eloquently about our commitment to the principles of Christianity, and yet our lives are saturated with the practices of paganism. We proclaim our devotion to democracy, but we sadly practice the opposite of the democratic creed. We talk passionately about peace, and at the same time we assiduously prepare for war. We make our fervent pleas for the high road of justice, and then we tread unflinchingly the low road of injustice. This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage."

In the sermon, written while he is in prison, Dr. King resists the temptation to lash out and attack, but very graciously claims that the struggles facing the world is not a result of its badness, but its blindness.  It is not that people are bad, they are just blind to truth.  "...they were not wicked men. On the contrary, they were decent and dedicated men. But they were victims of spiritual and intellectual blindness.  They knew not what they did."

On the cross, Jesus also doesn't accuse humanity of being bad, just blind (Luke 23:34) and asks God to forgive us.  Is that how you react when someone wrongs you?  Do you spend any amount of time trying to understand your adversary?  Most of us just go into strike mode. Most of us just scream and holler at the injustices we face.

Grace is amazing when we see it on display.  I am thankful that our country and her leaders saw fit to set aside a day to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  It is worth our time to consider what he taught and how he lived.