More Than Words

Dear Dr. King,

I was born about a decade after you were killed. The unrest you faced in our nation has been relayed to me only through textbooks and relatives who lived on the outskirts of the turmoil. The words you penned and so bravely spoke inspire me as a writer and a lover of Jesus. I searched through a list of quotes from you, with the plan of using one of them as a premise for this written remembrance of you. Not only is it nearly impossible to choose a single line from your beautifully articulated arsenal, but to simply quote you seems inadequate and perhaps not at all what you intended.

A couple of years ago, I attended a small meeting at the State Library in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to the meeting, I perused the library shelves for something interesting, ever eager to get my hands on good writing. My eye was drawn to a small book that appeared so old that it might crumble to be touched. Inside was a collection of essays from politicians in 19th Century America, outlining the argument for the abolition of slavery. Their arguments were very much the same as yours, and every bit as compelling. All too easily, I shook my head and thought, ‘How could people not agree with this?’

As I write today, our nation is observing your contribution as a great civil rights leader. Reading the quotes I’ve found from you, I again shake my head in disbelief that anyone could challenge the truth of your words. But it occurs to me that believing the truth of something, and choosing to act on that truth, are two vastly different things. Maybe I don’t mistreat people of a different race than me, but what am I doing to combat the mistreatment I see and hear all around me? What am I doing to address the crushing, widespread poverty in this country, in my own backyard? As you were fond of reminding us, apathy is just as bad as perpetration, which makes me as guilty as the lynch mobs of your time. I am a modern-day Saul, checking the coats of those who have come to stone Stephen. I must actively seek God's transformation of me into a Paul.

I admire you as a writer, for expressing truth using a magnificent balance of passion and logic, but I admire you so much more for your fearless adherence to living out that truth through relentless action. The civil rights movement of the 1960s might be long gone, but injustice, oppression and indifference of many kinds are ever-present. The world sorely needs a dose of your courage, starting with me. For, as you said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Rest well, Dr. King. I look forward to meeting you in Glory.