I’m still lying in bed and its almost noon. Don’t recall the last time this has happened, maybe its because the kids are watching TV and Michele is out at Ikea? Since I lay restless in this abnormal hour i share some verbal ink and reflection. (verbal ink? verbal ink are the books i read which become friends of the journey)
With over 12,000 service projects happening throughout the U.S. today honoring the work of MLK Jr, like many I wanted to share part of his story. So much could and should be shared, tomorrows leadership change reminds us all how far “the dream” has come. Yet tomorrow will come and go but the struggle and fight for human equality remains.
As i read the story of MLK I’m taken by his spiritual struggle. For many of us we know the valleys, the shadows, the rivers, and the mountains that the soul experiences through earthly pilgrimage. We understand these moments to be formative, instructive, prophetic, and painful. For MLK he met one such experience around his kitchen table. Charles March writes;
Sitting at his kitchen table sipping coffee, King’s thought were interrupted by a sudden notion that at once intensified his desperation and clarified his options. Something said to me, ‘You can’t call Daddy now, you can’t call on Mama. You’ve got to call on that something that person that your daddy ued to tell you about, that power that can make a way out of no way.’ With his head now buried in his hands, King bowed over the kitchen table and prayed aloud. he said:
Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I still think I’m right. I am here taking a stand for what I believe it right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m weak now, I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage. Now, I am afraid. And I can’t let the people see me like this because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak. The people are looking to me for leadership, and if I stand before them without strength and courage, they too will falter. I am at the end of my powers. I have nothing left. I’ve come to the point where I can’t face it alone.
As he prayed along in the silent kitchen, King heard a voice saying, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo, I will be with you. Even until the end of the world.” The King heard the voice of Jesus.”I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. NO never alone. he promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.” And as the voice washed over the stains of the wretched caller, King reached a spiritual shore beyond fear and apprehension. “I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before,” he said. “Almost at once my fears began to go,” King said of the midnight flash of illumination and resolve. “My uncertainty disappeared. I was ready to face anything.”
As we know he did face anything, even an untimely death.
As we reflect, participate or just lay in bed on this historic day may we be reminded that the Voice of Love, Justice, and Mercy meets or calls to us anywhere during life’s journey, even around the kitchen table.
Greg
