MLK: In The Name Of Love

Martin Luther King Jr. makes my top ten list of most inspiring people of all time.

I never bore of reading everything I can about his life and legacy. It always seems to stir a deeper desire in me to love every human being more, and as my brother and sister.

In honor of MLK today, I’ve compiled below his voice and thoughts which have influenced me the most over the years. His courage to give his life to confronting the evil of inequality has inspired so many of us. He also taught us what it looks like to do so in the name of love and not violence.

Thanks MLK for making me a better man and the world a better place!

The Journey Of Equality Moves On…

“A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

“At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a  friend.”

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’ “

“Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek; an ‘eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.”

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

“We must use time creatively.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

What Good Is It That Christ Was Born?

Meister Eckhart once said: ‘What good is it that Christ was born 2,000 years ago if he is not born now in your heart?”

We may believe in God, but do we believe in God-in-us? We may believe in God in heaven, but do we believe in God-on-earth? We may believe in God out there, but do we believe in God-with-us?

Lord, be born again in our hearts. Come alive in us this Christmas day that we too might bring joy to the world and peace on earth!

God, may YOU grant us the light of Christmas, which is hope.

The warmth of Christmas, which is love.

The radiance of Christmas, which is purity.

The righteousness of Christmas, which is justice.

The belief in Christmas, which is truth.

The ALL of Christmas, which is CHRIST.

–Wilda English

Somalia Famine: A Life-Changing USAID Initiative

Drought is inevitable, but famine is not. The current crisis in the Horn of Africa is the result of a tragic combination of factors that are man-made, including abnormally high food prices, lack of governance and security in Somalia, and a historic lack of investment in long-term agricultural development in the Horn. Over the past few years, we lost the political will and public support necessary to prevent the famine – and its causes. As a consequence, tens of thousands of children have died.

We have also missed the opportunity to help 200 million people from poor farming families lift themselves out of poverty. Communities in Africa can cope with droughts and natural disasters. But we need donors to put resources toward seeds, irrigation and teaching farmers new growing techniques. We need leaders to invest in early warning systems and national social safety net programs.

Congress can help keep our commitment to farmers in developing countries by fully funding Feed the Future— a life-changing USAID initiative that is investing in long-term agricultural development and could help put an end to famine for good.

Please sign our petition to Congress calling on them to fund this vital program:

http://act.one.org/sign/hungry_no_more_us

Thank you!

Crisis In The Horn Of Africa

We’re all asking: how can this be happening again?

Parts of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia are facing one of the worst droughts in 60 years, and more than 12 million people are desperately in need of food, clean water and basic sanitation.

Join me in calling on world leaders to save millions of lives – today and tomorrow:
http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa_us/?source=horncrisistafem

Despite the urgency of the situation, most world leaders are responding too slowly. Immediate aid is essential. Yet at the same time we must not let them drop the ball on long term solutions as has too often happened in the past.

Take action right now at:
http://act.one.org/sign/horn_of_africa_us/?source=horncrisistafem

ONE.ORG |

Did You Marry The “Right” Person?

I have done a lot of premarital with couples and weddings in the last few weeks, and it has got me thinking…

How do some couples think a person can be so “right” in one moment, only then to later think they are so “wrong?”

Do people really change that much, or conceal so well their true selves early on, eventually causing the other mate to question “who” or “why” they married?

Yes, perhaps so, but I don’t think it is as often as we too quickly accept. It might even only be true for a minority of couples.

Of course, there are exceptions, but only if you’ve recently discovered you married a serial killer or rapist, thief or criminal, abusive or cheating spouse, child molester and so on…you get the point.

But for many people who might be asking the “right” person question, it’s most likely not from any kind of extreme revelation like I’ve mentioned above. For a good majority, the question: did I marry the “right” person? may in fact, not even be the right or most helpful question to be asking after you’re married anyhow.

Perhaps we should ask this first: Is it possible the questioning may have more to do with the realization you both have somehow drifted apart, rather than about your mate being the “right” person?

I suspect and think this is true for many married couples. Secondly, if you are already married, the “right” question might actually now be more about you than it is about your spouse.

The real issue, first and foremost, may not be whether you married the right person; but rather ARE YOU BEING the right person? Just think, what would marriages, homes, and families be like if every married person took that seriously.

“It’s far more important to be the right kind of person than it is to marry the right person. In short, whether you married the right or wrong person is primarily up to you.” –Zig Ziglar

Have you honestly considered that how you’re treating your spouse can make all the difference? It could all come down to you and how committed you are to being the right kind of person.

For some, the strength of commitment in a marriage varies; it’s only as strong and deep as what they feel emotionally or physically toward the other at a given moment; ‘I felt you were the “right” person yesterday, but today I feel differently.’

Maybe a better way to understand commitment would be to compare it to bungee jumping. When you take that step off the platform, you are committed to follow through. The real reward of exhilaration is in the follow through after the jump.

Here’s an even better question to ask: Is commitment a direction to be pursued as long as it works, or is it a direction to be pursued until it works?

Your spouse being the “right” person might have everything to do with you being the “right” person—the person who follows through with what and with whom they committed to.

A Symphony Of God Is Love

And The Symphony Begins…For God is Love.

I can think of no greater sound or more soothing rhythm that moves me.

Rhythm is the invisible quality that holds a song together much like God holds the world together by being love.

I believe many of us are close to God every day and may not even be fully aware of it.

Because God IS Love, wherever and whenever you may experience, express, share, give, or be given love, God is near.

May you experience the symphony of God is Love. It is the rhythm holding us and all that God created together.

And may we all find ourselves enjoying it more and more as it moves us nearer to God. It is the most inspiring beat and the greatest sound of all the ages.

The Symphony Builds…

The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  ^{Psalm 145:8}

The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. Psalm 33:5

Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. ^{Psalm 36:5}

I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; I will make your faithfulness known through all generations. ^{Psalm 89:1}

For Jesus said, [These] and whatever other commands there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself. For love is the fulfillment of the law.”  ^{Romans 13:9}

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ^{1Peter 4:7-8}

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. If any one of you has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in you?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.  ^{1 John 3:16}

And The Symphony Plays On and On and On…

Enduring Love

Last Thursday, Debbie and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary. It was April 7th, 1990, that we said to each other, “I choose you!” –narrowing our choice down from billions of others on the planet to one.

We essentially made a decision to join our lives together that day. I believe God did something deeply sacred in that moment of which only he can (the joining), but we also made a decision to open our hearts to each other saying: “No one else gets me in this specific, holy, sacred, emotional, and physical way.”

This is where enduring love begins. It begins with a choosing and a decision! But it grows as we decide and choose love again and again.

Love is a Decision. Actually, it’s a series of decisions. And it works for as long as we continue to choose it.

Love is working on one level because God’s love and grace is at work in our lives individually. And, as a result, we’ve grown more in patience, truth, love and forgiveness, etc. But it’s also because Debbie and I understand love as a decision and not exclusively as a feeling or emotion.

You can’t “fall out” of love (or not be in-love anymore) if your understanding of it is that of a decision. You can only decide to love or not to love.

We’ve chosen to love each other every day. On occasion, the choice to love was difficult to make in light of our emotions or feelings. But with each day we’d choose to love, we’d die a little more to ourselves and came alive more and more to each other.

The decision to love actually grows and nurtures a more profound, enduring, and ever expanding love; running deeper and much further than what fleeting emotions and feelings of love alone can sustain.

Want an enduring love? Then never choose anything other than deciding to love–it never fails!

Oh, and there’s a magnificent bonus that comes with the decision to love, it makes the joy of loving even sweeter and more satisfying!

Basic Identity

One of the purest things I’m learning about myself these days is also the most basic and true identity we own as human beings:

I am LOVED and CREATED by God. And YOU are too. We all are.

Our breath and life are real gifts given to us by God to freely live.

Do you ever feel it necessary to ask permission from someone or something to actually live? Me too. And I don’t think we are alone.

Permission finds it roots in understanding our most basic identity.

I love the way Henri Nouwen says this…

The great conversion [of our life is to] learn the courage to say, ‘I don’t have to ask permission from the world to live. I am not what other people say I am. I am not what I produce. I am not what I own. What I truly am is the chosen, beloved child of Divine God.’

Who or what is greater than the ‘Divine God?’

It is so good to have permission to be so freely alive and loved so greatly! 

Unity, Freedom, Love, & Diversity

We live in a culture that bombards us with all they ways we are different.

To name a few: dress, speech, religious beliefs & rites,  family upbringing, skin color,  food, music, age, appearance, intelligence, political persuasion, economic status, race, and theological perspective.

Here’s a question for us to really ponder…

When God looks upon us, and considers the uniqueness in which he created each of us, do you think the above mentioned are atop his list of those he values most?

These really don’t make us much different, at least not at the core level of our being in which God would take great delight in.

Although we are diverse, we are not really all that different.  We discover commonality at the center of our humanity.

And I’d argue that God takes greater delight (and we should be too!) in the things that unite us rather than the differences that divide us.

As a pastor, one of the ways I see this played-out, is in the arena of religious belief, rites, and theological perspective. Too many of us draw dogmatic lines in the sand that divide more than they unite.

This leads us more toward biting and devouring of one another than uniting us. It further closes us off to the experience and perspective of others, creating dissonance on the surface, with what otherwise may actually be harmonious at a deeper level.

Unity begins with the understanding of our common humanity with others. That is still quite important to our lives relationally.

The discovery of this leads us back to the unity beneath our differences. There we’re united in our diversity and awaken to the reality that we are not the only favored and loved ones of God. To suggest or think otherwise, is the sinful nature at it’s best in the form of pride. And pride will always polarize us from both God and one another.

In the context of discovering unity, freedom, and love among our diversity, consider this…

“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.”

- Galatians 5:13-15

We live in freedom to focus on what unites us rather than what divides us.

Not freedom to do or think whatever we want. Freedom to live in the tension of diversity as we serve one another in love.

It’s our duty as Christians to talk about the ways in which we differ theologically. And we are to do it in: love, honesty, openness, intelligence, humility, patience, and certainly out of our devotion for Christ.

In essential matters: we have unity

In non essentials: we have freedom

In all things: we have love

But isn’t one’s non essential another’s essential and one’s essential another’s non essential. Exactly! That’s when and why we must ‘use our freedom to serve one another in love‘!

It’s difficult and requires maturity to live in the reality of freedom in Christ in such a way. But it’s how I believe the spirit of Jesus invites us to live.

One Final Thought: Perhaps Freedom in Christ is more than just something we claim for ourselves. It may actually be something we offer one another that unites us even in our diversity!

Love’s Like Gravity

What is the most powerful force in the universe? No question in my mind, it’s Love!

I read an article from the New York Times awhile back on a discovery called antigravity: A force of chaos in the universe that’s pulling everything apart as gravity works to bring everything together.

It got me thinking, that’s a very good metaphor for love and hate. Love is the force in the universe that brings everything together while hate drives everything apart.

Love is the gravity that unites us!

This video is a cinematic illustration of love’s creative power. And, at least in some part, an expression of the love I know and feel for my wife, Debbie, which draws us to each other.