Rev. Dr. King Day

 

Today is Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr day.  On the news you will hear snippets of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” sermon he gave in Washington DC on August 28, 1963.  However, Dr. King preached many, many powerful and profound sermons that should be quoted because of his intellect and insight and inspiration.  This week, I want to share with you portions of a sermon he preached at New Covenant Baptist Church, Chicago, Illinois, on April 9, 1967 entitled, “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life”.  I pray you will lean in and listen to these words.

And there are three dimensions of any complete life to which we can fitly give the words of this text: length, breadth, and height.  Now the length of life as we shall use it here is the inward concern for one’s own welfare.  In other words, it is that inward concern that causes one to push forward, to achieve his own goals and ambitions. The breadth of life as we shall use it here is the outward concern for the welfare of others.  And the height of life is the upward reach for God.  Now you got to have all three of these to have a complete life. 

(Pause for a moment to prayerfully ponder how those three dimensions are right now in YOUR life).

Now let us turn for the moment to the length of life. I said that this is the dimension of life where we are concerned with developing our inner powers. In a sense this is the selfish dimension of life. There is such a thing as rational and healthy self-interest.  A great Jewish rabbi, the late Joshua Leibman, wrote a book some years ago entitled Peace of Mind. And he has a chapter in that book entitled "Love Thyself Properly." And what he says in that chapter, in substance, is that before you can love other selves adequately, you’ve got to love your own self properly. You know, a lot of people don’t love themselves.  And they go through life with deep and haunting emotional conflicts. So the length of life means that you must love yourself.

And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself.  So many people are busy trying to be somebody else.  God gave all of us something significant. And we must pray every day, asking God to help us to accept ourselves. That means everything. Too many Negroes are ashamed of themselves, ashamed of being black.  A Negro got to rise up and say from the bottom of his soul, "I am somebody.  I have a rich, noble, and proud heritage. However exploited and however painful my history has been, I’m black, but I’m black and beautiful.”  This is what we’ve got to say. We’ve got to accept ourselves.  And we must pray, "Lord, Help me to accept myself every day; help me to accept my tools."

(Pause for a moment to prayerfully ponder the length of your life through the frame of love and acceptance for yourself – with all your beauty and moments of brokenness).

Prayer: God thank you for the length of life, this precious day when I can wake up this morning with my mind set to Your love and Your voice that calls me, “Beloved”.  Let me embrace and embody that word this day.  Amen.