I got notice of an acquaintance from my singles' group at church who died a few days ago. The man was not that old. It stupefied me to remember him as he sat at my table on a regular basis, and told of how his life was changed by God and by joining our Celebrate Recovery group. Each week he would proclaim the positive and profound impact that each had on his life. Each week, I would sit there and wonder, "Why on God's green earth is this man talking about this same thing over and over? Doesn't he have anything more to talk about?" Each week, he continued to tell how he built community with other men who encouraged him to follow hard after God and stay on the wagon. So, why did this guy, who, let's be honest, annoyed me talking about the same things repeatedly impact me today?
First, his death taught me that a life is valuable because God loves that life. God especially loves to see one repent of their sins and turn to him, which is what this person did. His former life that he led was not a "good life." He filled it with substance abuse and selfishness. Yet, when he surrendered to God's call, he found fulfillment. Like Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "If any man is in Christ he is a new creation...." This man became a new creation, filled with the Holy Spirit and a desire to see more become disciples of God. When he became a part of Celebrate Recovery he lived a transformed life because he found people who were willing to be honest with him and he could trust them with those honest and hard things of life. What a testimony!
Second, his death taught me that I need humility. Why was I so annoyed? From where does this spirit of judgment come? It comes from ME. This man in my class declared, on a consistent basis, his need for God and his desire for other to join him in finding community, peace, and love in Christ. Me, I chose to look at him and get annoyed. How selfish! How utterly primitive and base. I was reminded last week, by a relative, about Philippians 2:1-11. Those principles are to consume me. The attitude of a servant begins in the mind and should permeate my whole being. Yet, I struggle daily with these sins of pride and arrogance.
God, help me to know that you love all of us as we are, not as we should be. Remind me daily that when I submit to pride, I deprive you of your glory by taking it for myself. Father, I am sorry.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
40 Years Ago Today
From the Robert Kennedy Memorial Website:
Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.Indianapolis, IndianaApril 4, 1968:
I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.Indianapolis, IndianaApril 4, 1968:
I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.
Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.
My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.
So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.
We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.
But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.
Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.
Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.
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