Sunday, January 17, 2010

a day on

Martin Luther King day isn't supposed to be a day "off", but a day devoted to social justice. A day purposed to make a difference. A day "on".

I'm set to spend a good part of tomorrow in airports and on a plane, so we'll see how that works out. Traveling can make for the best conversations. Divine appointments, chance encounters, whatever you call them.

Reading tonight, (The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne), I came across a quote by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. describing the difference of helping those in poverty and helping those get out of poverty. It captured my heart.

I hadn't listened to many of Dr. King's speeches before, so I found a clip of the speech on YouTube. Couldn't find the whole recording, but did manage to find the transcript. Here's the quote in context:

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.


A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." (Martin Luther King Jr., "A Time to Break the Silence" (sermon, Riverside Church, New York, April 4, 1967).

While Dr. King was speaking of American involvement in Vietnam and the struggles of the impoverished in America, these words are as relevant and as powerful today. War is real. Poverty is real. Dr. King connected them and I cannot help but understand his connections. Thirty-three years later, has anything really changed?

So what will I do with this day "on"? What am I going to do to make the world a better place? How can I (a 23-year-old single white girl) help to heal a broken world?

Pretty sure that I can't. Not by myself, at least.

But God is faithful forever. He uses His people, His church, His Bride. God has US here to love His world. We get to be His hands and His feet. We get to take hold of the Beautiful Revolution of His Kingdom coming to Earth. When we are willing, He uses US.

I hear Dr. King speak of a "true revolution". I read about "obsessed people" experiencing crazy love with Jesus. (Crazy Love, Francis Chan.) My church constantly describes a life "on the mission". I don't want to be comfortable. I want to be a revolutionary for Jesus.

So, on this day "on", I hope to change the world. Maybe not for everyone. But for someone. In some way. That's how it starts.

This picture is of two sisters living in Don Bosco, a barrio for the most impoverished Dominican citizens of Barahona. They've been given more opportunities than other children living in poverty. They're drinking fresh water outside their school. These girls will be able to hear about God's love for them, in their own language, because a few revolutionaries cared enough to change the world.



Let's change the world with them. We each have different gifts. Let's use them for the same goal.
--Matthew 25:34-46

1 comment:

  1. Pom PomJanuary 18, 2010 at 4:30 AM

    What a thought-filled, heart revealing post. The Lord is definitely singing to you, wooing you, and you're listening.

    ReplyDelete

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Ephesians 5

Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – and find out what pleases the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says:

“Awake, O sleeper!

Rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you!”

Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

hey guys