I know it is pretty late and I should get some sleep but I felt moved to write something about the late Martin Luther King, Jr. M.L. as he was referred to growing up did something remarkable during his lifetime. He was a reformer refusing to comform to the condition of this country and for that he lost his life.
We have heard it all before; all the cliches about being all we can be. Even the U.S. Army uses it to recruit people to join them. While, not a bad phrase, my fear is that a lot of the its meaning has been lost its commercialization. The truth is that there is so much responsibility involved in being all that we can be. There is a lot of commitment required and a lot of sacrifices to be made as a result. The truth is that we fear becoming all that we can be. The thought of doing something out of the ordinary scares most of us and that is why the world is in the shape that it is in.
Christians including me are not quite willing to go the distance preaching the gospel all the time and as much as we still feel the need to, it is much easier to blend in with the crowd than to stand out. M.L. was a man whose calling was much greater than he was and the Caller even greater than the call. He fulfiled his calling to the best of his ability and paid the ultimate sacrifice. He reminds me of the ultimate caller Jesus Christ who too paid the ultimate sacrifice after taking upon Himself the sins of Mankind.
The call to stand out and be different takes more than beleiving in a phrase. Many people try to be different for many selfish reasons and purposes. M.L. wanted to be different so that all people could live together without the color of thier skin being an issue. Because of how he responded to the call, I can live a freer life in this country. Because of how Jesus answered the call, I can live a freer life period.
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