An Inspiring Example

In a couple of weeks from now, on April 4th, we will remember a sad day in history: the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Today I read a very inspiring article about him.   I hope you will read it and be encouraged as well.  The author says the following about Dr. King:

He was able to bring corporations to the point of acquiescence without resorting to violence or bribery. He was able to pass legislation that changed the daily lives of not only blacks but also women, people of faith, and immigrants - without ever being elected to public office or attempting to buy political influence. He was able to garner and leverage the attention of the entire international community on behalf of America's poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised - without ever being appointed to an ambassadorship or other high-profile international post. He was able to remind U.S. citizens what a democracy was and to engender a sense of moral responsibility that, more than 40 years later, challenges us to be the good we want to see in the world. King was a political genius.

When I read that, I realized how empowered it made me feel.  Even though I am not an elected or appointed public official, I can still change the world around me -- right now.  Granted, it will most likely not be on the scale of Dr. King, but it can be on some scale.

Many times I incorrectly assume that the only way I can make a real difference in our country is to exercise my right to vote.  But this occurs only once or twice every four years, during a very stressful season that seems to turn even potentially great leaders into mud-slinging, truth-bending meanies.  Then afterwards, it seems as though I can only sit around helplessly and cringe when they make the very decisions I was hoping they would avoid.  I've been cringing a lot these last few years as our government enacted policies and exerted its power in ways far from the peaceful and loving manner I longed for.

But this article brings me hope, as the author references the "Whatever you do to the least of these, you do me" parable of Jesus and concludes with the following:

So in this politically charged season, when race and gender and ideology are, as we have seen already, apt to become weapons in a war for the hearts and minds and hopes and dreams of all U.S. citizens, all politics remain identity politics - but that doesn't mean we have to pit our identity against the identity of another. In the spirit of King - and Jesus before him - we can choose to identify with more than just ourselves. We too can be both privileged and unprivileged, black and white, Asian and Latino, Muslim and Jew, Christian and Pagan, rich and poor, citizen and immigrant, national and international, public and private, veterans and peacemakers, Republican and Democrat, homosexual and unborn, blue collar, white collar, and no collar.

We can know each other's suffering, be acquainted with each other's grief, and work on each other's behalf to heal the hurts that have for too long divided the human family and robbed us of the solidarity that is, perhaps, our only hope of a brighter tomorrow.

Who can we be today?  What hurts can we share and eventually help heal?  Who are the least around us?