fear vs hope

...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. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.

Most of us know that this quote belongs to Dr Martin Luther King Jr. but how many of us remember that he made this statement the very day before his assassination? There were many threats on his life day after day - year after year leading up to that point of destiny forty years ago on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Yet, Reverend King didn’t allow fear to dictate any variance in his commitment to his calling as he continued to live and eventually die in a life filled to the brim with hope. I believe he understood more than most of us that there was most certainly a reason the Bible includes over 2,000 reminders of the importance in our role to care for the poor, the less fortunate, the outcast, and the afflicted.

I remember the days immediately following his killing and the overwhelming amount of fear that spread across our nation. Even as a snotty-nose ten year old I wondered what the response would be from the black community. We were warned of possible retaliation from the militant groups that were known to extend their civil rights demonstration efforts to include violence, which as we all know was in complete opposition to Dr. King’s position. After dusk during those years the rule was that we kids had to stay within the confines of our front yard if we wanted to stay outside and play until bath time. When cars approached with their head lights glaring my sisters and I would duck for cover behind the hedges near the porch in the event it was a machine gun wielding drive-by assassin from a group we had been told were called the Black Panthers. Despite growing up many miles from the racially contentious areas of the country we lived and played in fear of something we had very little understanding of during that spring/summer. Fear played a big role in the lives of many during those times - these times.

Later on in my adult life I had the opportunity to live in cities such as Memphis, Birmingham, Houston, and Atlanta which all still have powerful ties to the era of our nation’s not-so-proud past when it comes to the Civil Rights movement. Through the experiences and friendships I made in those cities I came to understand more fully that Martin Luther King didn’t just represent the views and welfare of people of color, yet he represented the inherent rights, fair treatment, as well as the hopes and dreams of each and every member of the human race. Sadly as it is to say, there are still many people even today that don’t understand, or acknowledge that fact. What Rev. King desired could be deemed true equality for all. More importantly we have the teachings of Christ which stand to remind us that we were all created as equals through the workmanship and predetermined plan of the one and only creator of the universe.

We all know that we shouldn’t live in fear of any man - yet for some of us a constant fear is what we have stashed away in the depths of our pocket-full of internal possessions, isn’t it? We fear other’s opinions, criticism, authority, control, presence, rejections, and for some of us we even fear the love of others. We fear the unknown much greater than the known. We fear the return of our past as well as projected events of our future. We become so caught up in worry and concern for things that we have little to no control over and these are given birth by the fear that resides within us.

Despite being able to easily read in the Bible that we as “believers” have been delivered from a Spirit of fear, yet in our hearts and minds we still can’t seem to shake it. The fullness of the potential we have for a complete version of hope is always kept in check by the fear that often controls us.

As I was digging through the many piles of stuff I have laying around I ran across a piece of paper where I scribbled some notes as I watched a public television program a few years ago. The guest speaker on the talk show was a fellow named Bobby Seale. Some of you may know him as one of the founding fathers of the group called the Black Panthers. Mr. Seale was recounting the early functions and activities of their group, as well as the vastly different personalities of its early leadership group such as the likes of Steven Shames, Eldridge Cleaver, and Huey Newton. (I can’t promise that any of these names are spelled correctly, so if you feel the need - write back and correct me.) Anyway, the point I’m making is that unknowingly to me (and probably a lot of other folks) the Black Panthers main involvement as an organization began as a means to help broaden the testing and awareness of the issues involved with the disease we know as “sickle-cell” (the leading cause of death in African-Americans at the time).

They also implemented a very effective children’s pre-school breakfast program in many of the poverty stricken minority communities well before any of the government agencies got on the band wagon. They also focused extensively on getting minorities registered to vote throughout the country at a time when very few had ever exercised their right to do so - because of (you guessed it) fear.

One of the best quotes that I noted from that show goes as follows; “We, the African-American community need to quit looking for the next Martin Luther King to appear on our horizon. We are long past the days when a single person can represent the diverse views of our people. We have leaders in ever genre of business, religion, education, politics, and society as a whole. We need to start reevaluating ourselves for what we can do for ourselves, and not what others can do for us.” Fear can most certainly be replaced with hope when such a calling as this is heeded.

I want to close this journal item with something that a very young, yet brilliant student of Harvard University wrote during the same era that Dr. King lived, marched, preached, and served others, its entitled The Paradoxical Commandments. I can hear this being said in Rev. King's voice.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good deeds you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good deeds anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs, but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help, but may attack you if you try.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have to offer and you get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

Anyway - Kent M. Keith

I’m offering this item today in celebration of the dream that was extended through the life of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. For within the wisdom of a youthful Kent Keith we find the resounding attitude that by doing the right thing (regardless of what others think, say, or do to us) we will move closer to what God has in mind for us.

I’m learning more each day that hope will only truly overcome fear through the strength we gain by our knowledge of His word and by having complete faith that He has delivered us from a fearful existence, which Dr King so boldly declared on April 3, 1968. Doug