A Broken World

Yesterday was designated as Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. This day comes with a mixture of hope and sorrow as I contemplate the life and impact of Dr. King.

I first heard of Dr. King through the media when I was a young boy and through into my early adolescent years. I remember his stirring oratory and how it moved my heart even then. He was able to make me feel somewhat of his people's pain, though I was not one of those who endured it. I remember admiring his courage in the face of horrible bigotry and the very real harm such hatred engendered. And even today, I garner hope in the fact that we as a nation were able to move significantly toward the fulfillment of his grand and good vision of racial equality.

However, I sorrow at the cost. The cost of lives battered and lost was great. In this case, like any great endeavor for righteousness, there is always a cost to be counted. Most of all, I remember the cost of 1968, when the life of someone who had already come to be a hero in my young heart was snatched away. Like most of the nation, I was stunned by the news of Dr. King's assassination. I think that it was then I first thought there must be something wrong with the world. Of course I knew there were bad people in the world and that evil things happened because of them. But I don't think it was until that particular point when I somehow felt the world was broken in some way.

Since that time I have learned what Dr. King already knew many years before his passing. I have learned that yes, the world is broken, and we all broke it. We all continue to break the world with our selfishness and greed and pride and lust and hatred. In the words of one author, "There is a problem with the world, and it is me." I have learned that this problem has but one solution, one provided by the author of life. It is to embrace wholeheartedly the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, and live, really live, by faith in Him. Dr. King reached the promised land because of such faith and the actions he took in response to his faith in Jesus. I hope and pray my actions in life can serve my Lord is half the measure that his did.

IJHN,
LEE