The Dream

Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. It wasn’t that white people and black people be nice to each other. It was that all races would see each other as humans. At least that is what my understanding would be. That he felt we could live without the need to be individual races, but just one race.

He said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hatred cannot drive out hatred; only love can do that.” He led a generation to look at the heart and not the skin. He is truly one of my heroes and one of Americas as well.

Where did he get this thinking? Was it because he was raised by good parents? Was it because he had aspirations of politics? No, it was because he knew Jesus! He added to that quote above, “I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

Mr. King knew true love. He knew the Source of true love. It wasn’t in himself.

If it were humanly possible to have true love on the level many “popular” folk claim to have, our world would a utopia. There would be no crime or suffering. No drug addictions. No homeless people. Everything would be right and peaceful. No wars, no terrorists.

But that’s not the case. True love comes from the One who created love. In fact, He (God) embodies it. (1 John 4:8, 16) So, if we are created in His image, why don’t we embody it as well?

Sin. Sin showed up and tore everything to pieces. Man walked away from being like God and became like the devil. He chose (and continues to choose) to live disobedient to his maker. But Mr. King found something different.

Jesus came so that we might see love and learn to live with love as our focus. Not just for those who are close or those that benefit us the most, but for all of mankind. Mr. King had a firm grasp on this. It was his standard and it was what got him murdered.

Today is the day we celebrate his life. We take this one day a year to remember a man who gave everything for equality. But he did this because he knew a Man who gave everything for all to know what Mr. King knew. That Jesus is the answer, literally, to all of our problems. Especially our racial problems.

There is no white. There is no black. No Asian. Just people. And Jesus loves people! Mr. King understood that better than most.