Lately, I've found myself in a reflective mood. That is, to simply take a phrase or sentence and allowing it to mull over and over in my head/heart...
...this is a powerful practice!
...Today, being what it is, I thought I would do that with some of the writings of Martin Luther King Jr.
...The more I read and pondered, the more and more amazed I became at some of the things this man said, wrote and did.
The following are a few more thoughts that served as speed-bumps in my pondering... Thoughts that caused me to pause, think, reflect and ultimately will require a response, as all truth does...
"Our lives begin to end the day we
become silent about things that matter."
become silent about things that matter."
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.
He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition
was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.
This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for,
he isn't fit to live.
If physical death is the price that I must pay to free
my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit,
then nothing can be more redemptive.
If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Life's most persistent and urgent question is,
'What are you doing for others?'
Love is the only force capable of
transforming an enemy into friend.
Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than
sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind.
The time is always right to do the right thing.
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was:
"If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?"
But... the good Samaritan reversed the question:
"If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those
who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.
The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live.
Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles and misguided men.
The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars
are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.
The quality, not the longevity,
of one's life is what is important.
There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life,
devoid of breadth.
To be a Christian without prayer
is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.
We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.
He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.
There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.
When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.
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