Feb 22, 20224 min read

The Ultimate Dream Pitcher: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Photo from Anne Arundel Community College Dr. King Memorial taken by EKR.

Music for your listening pleasure as you read... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPNGkk8MOAw

The words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his I have a dream speech still ring in my heart since hearing it as a child. Every year I look forward to hearing his speech. It is a continual reminder of how far we have come as a nation and how far we still need to go.

To make Rev. Dr. King Jr.'s dream come true it requires a life of continual sacrifice and diligence to the call of loving, respecting, and honoring ourselves and others who are different. But the true challenge comes when we are face to face with our own shortcomings and we still find it extremely difficult to be accepting of ourselves and/or others. Each of us holds a chunk of our heart back from fulling accepting and loving others and to not fully admit or recognize this limitation is a disservice to ourselves and to Rev. Dr. King Jr.'s memory and to his dream.

We each come to this world with limitations some are physical while others can be mental. Sometimes it is the people that surround us or even the financial situation that seems to hold us back. These spiritual handicaps are limitations that seem to hold you back from progressing in life. Whether they turn out to be a blessing or a curse is depended on whether we are willing to do the spiritual work that is necessary to bring about goodness in our everyday lives, despite our spiritual handicaps or like St. Paul called them thorns. Because the reality is that life is extremely hard and whether you decide to do right or not you are going to feel pain of life. But we should do it anyways for the glory of God and what we do with the gifts that we have been given is up to us and not entirely dependent on our circumstances. Sometimes it is just a matter of recognizing our need for divine grace.

Annually African American History month gives us the opportunity to examine our hearts and minds. We also have the distinct privilege to celebrate our national accomplishments and our own personal accomplishments as well. In addition we should take the time to examine our hearts to see what internal work still needs to be done. Asking ourselves difficult questions like what am I doing or not doing that may be stopping someone else from fulfilling their God given destiny? How am I using oppression or discrimination practices at work, home, or in my community? How am I ignoring a specific group of people? How am I stopping The Dream and what can I do to help others who are different from me realize their dreams? How can I accept other's differences but at the same time honor, respect, and celebrate my own unique gifts? How can I validate others without invalidating myself and my needs?

Let's examine our hearts and our lives daily and to have honest conversations with ourselves. And to challenge our own negative assumptions and those of others around us. Because respect and honoring others doesn't take away from you, your experience, or your heritage. That doesn't mean we allow others to dishonor or disrespect us, but rather it makes room for others to bloom right along side of us. There is nothing like a garden that has true diversity where others are able to have a seat at the table, because that's what love looks like, making room for one more and allowing them to share their viewpoints in a safe space. By graciously honoring their experience and their value we elevate them and ourselves at the same time.

Let's honor ourselves by taking the first step everyday to accepting and celebrating other's differences as well as our own. Sometimes it begins with a simple prayer and taking the first step one day at a time. Let's take Rev. Dr. King Jr.'s Dream and make it our own. Let's take the ball and pass it on one day at a time, one person at a time. Let it begin with us so that the flame of love can grow bigger and brighter within our world and within our hearts each and every day.

From the desk of Esther Kamoche Robinson

Excerpt from the March on Washington I Have A Dream Speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in 1963.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tomorrow.

I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.

I have a dream today

Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the Serenity

to accept the things I cannot change.

The courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is; Not as I would have it; Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will;