If Nothing Else, Remember This

We remember a life this day, along with the corresponding movement and the hope for a brighter future. Martin Luther King’s life (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) is celebrated today. He was just a year older than my dad. He was assassinated on my dad’s 38 birthday at the young age of 39 in Memphis, Tennessee, at the Lorraine Motel, just 8 miles north of Graceland, the home and museum of Elvis Presley. Elvis was in Hollywood filming a movie, “Live a Little, Love a Little.” In a “comeback” special, he sang a song as a memorial to King, “If I Can Dream.”

I lay out the bits of history for this purpose.

We are cross-connected in many ways. Unless and until you connect the dots, you will never see the entire picture. You will always be lost in the dark.

For me, I was a child of the ’60s. This was a coming-of-age time on many fronts, but it was also full of hatred and violence. My parents worked hard to protect us, but the times were not hidden. I made, and still have, scrapbooks from those days. They are a child’s view of the world. Innocent. Imperfect. Not well cared for, but the memory of those days was real. Lived. They were exampled by so many in my little world.

Since those days, I’ve often quoted the men too quickly taken from us. JFK, MLK, RFK – in this order. But between JFK and MLK was Malcolm X. I honestly remember nothing about his death. He was Muslim and killed by those within the Nation of Islam. I need to study this.

Here’s My Thought

I have many quotes I refer to and can name where I got my sources because that’s what I do. Since MLK’s death, and maybe it’s only later in life, I understand it even better day by day. He was a minister and wanted to do what was right.

What would MLK say about his own life?

“During King’s funeral a tape recording was played in which King spoke of how he wanted to be remembered after his death: “I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others” (King, “Drum Major Instinct,” 85).” [Source]

If you remember nothing else, the sacrifice of a life for the betterment of all of us should be the foundation for remembering this day. Was he a perfect man? No. None of us are. Did he do everything right? Probably not, just like all of us.

Someone quoted a thought to me the other day.

If it doesn’t make it to your eulogy or headstone, then it doesn’t really matter.

What do you have to say about yourself?

Serving Others

Serving others – this is the call for Christians everywhere. We are not selfish, thinking only of ourselves. We are focused on a better day for everyone. When we acknowledge the boundaries that separate us and make them become walls that cannot be torn down, then we do a disservice to our calling. At the foot of the cross, in the upper room on Pentecost, and across the Church’s early beginnings, we do not see a barrier as we experienced in the ’60s.

Could it be the power of the Holy Spirit diluted our differences?

One of the significant differences in the times of Jesus was the separation between Jews and Gentiles. Followers of God, and those that were not, even if they were in their own way. If you were not Jewish, then you were not part of God’s plan. But God showed Peter that there were no barriers such as just us and no more. Read all of Acts 10 to understand this concept. When the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles at Cornelius’s house, the amazed Jews realized that a barrier that had stood for centuries was now torn down. The Holy Spirit was not available to every man, woman, and child regardless of where they originated.

Are we followers of Christ? Then everyone has a chance! (Romans 6:4, 8:11, etc.) Paul’s last words to Timothy say this:

Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David,
was raised from the dead according to my gospel,
for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains;
but the word of God is not chained.
Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect,
that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2 Timothy 2:7-10 NKJV

The Word of God is not chained! In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God! (John 1:1) The opening salvo of the Gospel of St John lays out the thrust of the Church.

This is us today. No barriers. No have’s and have not’s. The only thing that matters is that we are born of the Water and the Spirit (John 3:5) and live life according to the Word.