What are you Thankful for?
“I’ve Been to the
Mountaintop.” He began it by surveying world history in response to God's
question: “When would you have liked to be alive?” King answered, “If you allow
me to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century, I will
be happy.” Why? Because “I see God working in this period of the twentieth
century in a way that men in some strange way are responding. Something is
happening in our world.”
What was happening? “We are determined to be men. We are
determined to be people.” We are standing up. “A man can't ride your back
unless it is bent.” For a brief window of time — just long enough — MLK was
able to use his voice to restrain violence and overcome hate: “We are masters
in our nonviolent movement in disarming police forces. They don't know what to
do.” He kindled a kind of fire that no dogs could quench and no fire hoses
could put out.
It was “a dangerous kind of unselfishness.” Like the Good
Samaritan. “The Levite asked, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to
me?’ But the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help
this man, what will happen to him?’ That's the question before you tonight.”
A dangerous unselfishness.
So dangerous it would cost MLK his life. And he saw it
coming. That morning there was a bomb threat on his plane from Atlanta to
Memphis. He felt it coming. So he closed his sermon prophetically:
We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t
matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.
Like anybody, I would like to live a long life — longevity has its place. But
I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s
allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the
Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight,
that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I’m happy tonight;
I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen
the glory of the coming of the Lord.
Ten hours later he was dead. My world was changed forever.
And I am thankful
1. “We must
accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
2. “Darkness
cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.”
3.
“Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude.”
4. “I have
decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
5. “Faith is
taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
6. “Life’s
most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
7. “Never
succumb to the temptation of bitterness
8. “Our
lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
9. “We may
have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
10. “The
ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and
convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
11. “Change
does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous
struggle.”
12. “Love is
the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
13. “There
comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic,
nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
14. “Let no
man pull you so low as to hate him
15. “If you
can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl,
but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward
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