Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I know that it’s all too obvious—the morning sunshine breaking though the darkness of the night always bringing a new day for each of us. It’s a simple action of the sun God threw into the sky, rising again and then again—breaking through the dark silence of each night, and having the remarkable effect of reminding us that no matter what yesterday was like—today is a brand new day.
But it’s not just a new day, but a new day full of brand new opportunities. And tomorrow will be the same, and day after day, sunrise after sunrise, thereafter. Pretty simple really.
With that assurance, though, the question before us becomes—what will we do with it? What will we do with each brand new day and the opportunities which each new day presents?
And the answer depends upon us, as it always has and always will.
We’re reminded of that on a day like today, where we as a nation pause to recognize the life of one person who always believed that a better tomorrow for others depended on what he did with his life that day and every day. That in the gift of each brand new day there were opportunities for positive contribution that his one life could make in the darkness of someone else’s night.
Today as a nation we pause to celebrate and remember the life of a great American, Martin Luther King, Jr. A man who was born and raised in relative stability and security, but lived during times that were far from stable and secure. A man who refused to stay or stand silent in the face of prejudice, injustice and wrong, and instead strived for purposes seemingly unattainable, striving anyway believing that tomorrow could be a better day for others and for us as a nation.
His life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet and he died on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. The autopsy revealed that he had the heart of a sixty-year-old. He was thirty-nine. Maybe that happens when you commit that every day your life will make a contribution in the life of someone else. By acting on the opportunities of each brand new day he was given, Martin Luther King, Jr. began to change the face and heart of a nation.
And he did it with his actions and words, like those he shared before millions on August 28, 1963, against the backdrop of the Lincoln and Washington Memorials in Washington, DC, during his now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech—
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…that one day…little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers…
“When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children…will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Each brand new day—and the opportunities it presents—may not require that we hold a mirror before the world to show it a face of prejudice, injustice and discrimination that must be addressed for the good of all of us. But just as each day unfolded in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. requiring the action he felt led to, the unfolding of the days of our lives also require action.
Without that action, the days will pass by, and the opportunities presented to make a difference for our life and the lives of others around us may be lost forever. A loss which could result in a lifetime for someone living in darkness, longing to be free, who needs to feel the hope that can come in the sunshine of a brand new day—the hope that God intended for their lives.
The morning sun has once again broken through a long and silent night of darkness presenting us with a bright new day full of brand new opportunities. It has happened our whole life long. It will happen again tomorrow.
The question for today, tomorrow and the rest of your life is this: What will you do with it?
Your answer will form the legacy you leave in the lives of others each day.
In His Name—Scott
Copyright 2015. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
