Good morning. So I thought this morning would serve as an ideal moment to get back to being more consistent with posting. Of course, today marks 52 years since MLK, Jr.’s life came to an tragic end on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee.
Now this April 4th takes on a greater significance for me. It’s a sobering thought to realize that I am now the age as MLK, Jr. was when he stepped out onto that hotel balcony. 39. It’s incredibly frustrating to think about all his work that went unfinished. But more than that, it’s profoundly heartbreaking to consider how little time his kids had to laugh and play with him.
As a sophomore at Lipscomb University, I had the opportunity to travel to Memphis with my biblical ethics class to visit the Lorraine Motel and the Civil Rights Movement museum adjacent to it. It was the first time I came into contact with the words and images of a time in history that had been kept hidden from me.
Before that trip my only knowledge of MLK and the Civil Rights Movement consisted of the I Have A Dream speech that was played for me at school almost every February during Black History Month. That was it.
Teachers never once made mention of unarmed men, women, and children being assaulted with firehouses, nightsticks, dogs, chains, steamy hot coffee, eggs, lead pipes, brass knuckles, bullets, tear gas, dynamite, and nooses; all for wanting the chance to cast a vote and a place to sit on their bus or at their local lunch counter.
But suddenly there I was walking through the museum reading and viewing everything I could about this pivotal moment in history. I spent the whole bus ride back to Nashville trying to process what I had just seen. And in a moment of profound awareness it became clear to me what MLK and all the anonymous heroes of the Civil Rights Movement were trying to accomplish.
While politics certainly made for good headlines, MLK and the brave foot soldiers who worked along side him never set out with the intention of starting a political movement. Rather, they came together with seismic aspirations of causing a spiritual awakening. You see they were convinced that segregation not only violated the Constitution, but also represented a gross betrayal of God’s will expressed most powerfully in the person of Jesus Christ.
Yes, they dedicated themselves to overcoming injustice by securing equal rights and protections for anyone deemed, “separate, but equal.” However, it was understood early on that they not could triumph by achieving justice alone. History made clear that justice absent of righteousness eventually withered and died.
While they certainly sought to put an end to the political realities of segregation, they wanted even more to see the sin of racism put to death. For racism served as the architect of segregation and only by destroying it could both sides declare victory.
So this April 4th may we all find a moment to consider the true essence of the conflicts and dangers that confront us today. Is our fight really with some external “threat” that we have to resist at all costs. Do our struggles truly breakdown into Black v White, Red State v Blue State, or Boomer v Millennial? Or do our battles and divisions actually arise from the profound brokenness residing inside all of us?
More than inviting us to contemplate, April 4th also implores us to take time to dream about triumphs we wish to see in our time. For there remain many victories we have yet to achieve (equal pay for women, sustainable healthcare, our children going to school without fear of being shot, etc.). And let us not plan to put off to tomorrow those actions that can lead to a victory today. Because if we learn nothing else from April 4th then it is that tomorrow is not a plan, tomorrow is a gift.
CJE