Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dreams (Blog Cross-Post)

Acknowledging the Giver of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dreams

by Eugene Cho 01-14-2011

In anticipation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (this coming Monday, January 17, I’m sharing one of my favorite MLK Jr. quotes:

“When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

What’s your favorite MLK quote?

Martin Luther King Jr. was an extraordinary person.  Not perfect, but nevertheless, extraordinary.  While we remember his legacy again on this day, let’s not make the mistake of forgetting the God behind this extraordinary man.

It’s way too easy to talk about MLK because so many people and groups of people want to own him as their own.  But they often don’t want to take ALL of him.  At the core of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. was a follower of Jesus Christ. His faith in Christ informed all that he sought to do as a civil rights leader.

And that is precisely why his dream did not die upon his assassination. Because it wasn’t his dream.  This dream is bigger than one man, one race, one gender, and one generation.  God is behind it all.

Dr. King was not a perfect man — far from it. But he was a great man as he pursued to live out his definition of greatness: a servant of others. While many are familiar with his more well known speeches such as “I Have a Dream,“ another one that I’m particularly drawn to is his last “speech” — delivered the day before his assassination.

“I just want to do God’s will … as a people, we will get to the promised land … I’m not fearing any man as mine eyes have seen the coming of the Lord.”

On MLK’s birthday on Monday, may we acknowledge and celebrate this amazing dreamer but also acknowledge the Giver of such dreams … and dare to dream as well.

A Choice to Make (Blog Cross-Post)

A Choice to Make

Steve Goodier

I believe that, at least to some degree, we can each exercise control over our attitudes. And the problem is – if we don’t control our attitudes, they will surely control us.

One farmer took charge of his outlook. He did it by filling his mind with awe and gratitude. He found that doing this gave him more energy to work on problems and to tackle those things that needed his attention. His neighbor’s outlook could not have been more different.

One summer morning he exclaimed, “Look at the beautiful sky. Did you ever see such a glorious sunrise?”

She countered. “It’ll probably get so hot the crops will scorch.”

During an afternoon shower, he commented, “Isn’t this wonderful? Mother Nature is giving the corn a drink today.”

“And if it doesn’t stop before too long,” came the sour reply, “we’ll wish we’d taken out flood insurance on the crops.” And so it went.

Convinced that he could instill some awe and wonder in this hardened woman, he bought a remarkable dog. Not just any mutt, but the most expensive, highly trained and gifted dog he could find. The animal was exquisite. It could perform remarkable and impossible feats that, the farmer thought, would surely amaze even his neighbor. So he invited her to watch his dog perform.

“Fetch!” he commanded, as he tossed a stick into a lake, where it bobbed up and down in the rippling water. The dog bounded after the stick, walked ON the water, and retrieved it.

“What do you think of that?” he smirked.

“Hmmm,” she frowned. “Can’t swim, can he?”

Not to sound too Pollyanna, but I agree with newscaster Paul Harvey when he said that he has never seen a monument erected for a pessimist. A stubbornly positive attitude can often make the difference between happiness and misery, between health and illness and even between life and death.

Viktor Frankl would have agreed. Dr. Frankl chronicled his experiences as a Holocaust and concentration camp survivor in his book Man's Search for Meaning. In it he asserts something really quite remarkable. He says that everything can be taken from a person except one thing. What can never be taken away is the power to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.

We can decide to choose our attitudes every day. That may be one of the most important decisions we will make. I don’t want to neglect making that choice.

Read Steve's Blog @ http://stevegoodier.blogspot.com/