I completely forgot it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day back in the States until my lovely friend Ahna shared a quote with me in honor of the day yesterday!
Today, I came across a beautifully adapted prayer, originally by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968). I am inspired by this man because, out of anyone I know (or have come to “know” through history), he is the most like Jesus to me. While those two men both lived in the past and in different times, MLK helps me to grasp the love that Jesus must have shown. A couple of months ago, I watched the documentary Soundtrack for a Revolution and was floored by how recent those horrific events were in our culture and by how casual those events were digested by society shown on the nightly news, campaigned against in commercials, and read about in flyers. How peace was confronted with violence day in and day out…and how the young and noble Martin Luther King, Jr. relentlessly encouraged and advocated for peace in perseverance.
“O God, our heavenly Father, we thank you for this golden privilege to worship you, the only true God of the universe. We come to you today grateful that you have kept us through the long night of the past and ushered us into the challenge of the present and the bright hope of the future. We are mindful, O God, that we cannot save ourselves, for “man is not the measure” of things and humanity is not God.
Bound by our chains of sin and finiteness, we know we need a savior. Help us never to let anyone or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate. Give us the strength to love our enemies and do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us.
We thank you for your Church, founded upon the Word that challenges us to sing and pray and go and work. Then, finally, help us to realize that we were created to shine like the stars and live on through all eternity.
Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace, help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all of God’s children will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray. Amen.”
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