A Reflection on MLK: Changes of Heart

A week ago Monday was the school holiday that honored MLK's birthday.  I decided to make the 10 minute drive from our house to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum with my daughter.  I was surprised at how much she knew about this day and this man when I told her of our road trip.  She quickly ran to her backpack and proudly returned with a neatly handwritten note she had copied from a book at school on the previous day.    

January 20, 1986, was an important day.  It was the very first Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Martin Luther King, Jr. believed everyone should be free to work at any job or attend any school.  Everyone should be able to do the same thing.  At one time many laws in our country were unfair to African Americans! 

With great enthusiasm, we dressed and headed for downtown Birmingham. 

On our way into the Museum, we walked past the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.  It reminded me of the story my friend told me about her older sister dying in the basement of that church.  Four little girls, just about my daughter's age, innocently going to the bathroom.  A bombing that would forever mark the history of this city.  "Who would do such a thing?"  I was thinking this while Kate announced it.  Hate is a powerful emotion.  Fear is even more dangerous. 

While we have come a long way since Civil Rights, hate and fear are alive and well.  Most notably within the Christian faith, we let the things that make us different turn into anger.  The world certainly shows us enough hatred already.  Why would we not do as Jesus says and simply love each other.  I am pretty sure God isn't going to line us up by church denomination when we get to heaven.  Who among  us knows for sure that our church is getting it right 100% of the time?  The perfect message.  The perfect people.  The perfect church.  Where does love fit into the hierarchy of religion.  Change your heart, change your enemy and change your world.

As we exited the museum, Kate looked at me with pause.  "Am I white?", she asked as she pinched her arm.  "Yes", I said knowing it was a leading question.  She pulled me closer and whispered, "Is it bad that I'm white?"

Civil Rights is definitely part of our history.  But it doesn't have to be part of our here and now.  God made each and everyone of us different and special and beautiful.  Be at peace, see Christ in the eyes of your fellow man, and be the person you were meant to be.  The more I pray for change the more I begin seeing the reflection of Christ in faces all around me.  People can sense genuine kindness and respond with only the grace that God can provide.  We are all God's children.  Even those who do not believe.  Get in that faith place, change your heart and let God work miracles in your life. 

Ron Hall writes in 'same kind of different as me', "I cannot see into a persons heart to see his spiritual condition.  All I can do is tell the jagged tale of my own spiritual journey and declare that my life has been the better for having followed Christ."

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the staircase."  --Martin Luther King Jr.

LizzieB