Wisdom of Dr. King Part 4

 

We continue to lean in and listen to the wisdom of Dr. King this week.  Here are a few words of wisdom from Dr. King to slowly savor.  These come from Lois Wilkins and Felix and Nancy McElory:

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle."

 

Faith requires actions during our life’s journey. Silence is provocative. For me, change is a push/pull series of moments. Change is gonna come.

 

True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

 

I wonder, as those quotes mix and mingle in your soul, what directions does the cumulative and collective wisdom above turn you toward?  What is sparked or stirred with you as you let the words above slowly sink and settle into your life?  For me, I am reminded that I don’t know the full path to justice, but I keep on trudging.  That the path toward justice is not always smooth sailing, it is rough and rocky.  Along the way, I need to be mindful not to sink into bitterness or cynicism or think nothing is getting better.  Is hate of the other fueling my life or God’s baptismal love?  That question is never one and done, but a daily one (an hourly one!) to ask continually and prayerfully!

 

We close with three prayers from Dr. King:

 

O God, we thank you for the lives of great saints and prophets in the past, who have revealed to us that we can stand up amid the problems and difficulties and trials of life and not give in. We thank you for our foreparents, who’ve given us something in the midst of the darkness of exploitation and oppression to keep going. Grant that we will go on with the proper faith and the proper determination of will, so that we will be able to make a creative contribution to this world. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray.

 

O God, make us willing to do your will, come what may. Increase the number of persons of good will and moral sensitivity. Give us renewed confidence in nonviolence and the way of love as taught by Christ. Amen. 

 

O Thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being, we humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds, and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us. We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ. We often give in order to receive. We love our friends and hate our enemies. We go the first mile but dare not travel the second. We forgive but dare not forget. And so as we look within ourselves, we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against you. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know your will. Give us the courage to do your will. Give us the devotion to love thy will. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.