Good morning…
I had a message all written and scheduled to arrive in your inbox at 3:00 am today. Then God woke me around 2:20 am with an anxious dream that took hours to develop into this brand new message. Let me tell you about it.
I dreamed that I had missed not one but two emails inviting me to speak at noon today in Washington, D.C. There was to be a luncheon served in one big room with three entrance doors. The door to the left would invite in a line of fancy, formal, well-dressed people. The door to the right would invite in a line of the working poor, the homeless, the downtrodden dressed in casual, comfortable clothes. The middle door would invite in anyone from any background wearing anything they pleased, but these people had to be willing to eat the meal provided with small baby spoons, in bite-sized pieces, easy-to-chew portions. Everyone was to gather in one spacious room to hear me share a “top ten list.” And then I woke from my dream.
Dreams are so weird and yet so intriguing.
I got out of bed, cozied into our couch, and opened my journal to ask God, “What is this ‘top ten list’?” As I prayerfully pondered, I began to sense that the crowd in Washington, D.C. today could benefit from hearing a “top ten list” of Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes, quotes speaking into our stuck shutdown of separate sides. So, I got online and I found a list of 123 MLK Jr. quotes and narrowed them to a “top ten list,” a list defining for us baby steps up a central staircase to God’s higher way.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
- “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”
- “The God whom we worship is not a weak and incompetent God. He is able to beat back gigantic waves of opposition and to bring low prodigious mountains of evil. The ringing testimony of the Christian faith is that God is able.”
- “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
- “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
- “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”
- “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
- “By opening our lives to God in Christ, we become new creatures. This experience, which Jesus spoke of as the new birth, is essential if we are to be transformed nonconformists … Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit.”
- “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What am I doing for others?'”
- “Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.”
- “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
“Then he told his servants, ‘We have a wedding banquet all prepared but no guests. The ones I invited weren’t up to it. Go out into the busiest intersections in town and invite anyone you find to the banquet.’ The servants went out on the streets and rounded up everyone they laid eyes on, good and bad, regardless. And so the banquet was on—every place filled (Matthew 22:8, MSG).
…Sue…
P.S. For those in the Atlanta area, please join me and facilitators Susan Spratt, Betsy Walker, and Ginna McFarling at Northside Church as we walk our way into the abundant life God intends through a six week series entitled “Living Fully – Dying Well.” To learn details and review our line up of talent professionals, touch this link:
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