“I’ve determined to stay with love. Hate is simply too nice a burden to bear.”—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
This week is one that can keep on with us. It included the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist strikes, a faculty taking pictures, and a political assassination—all proof that the hate that’s so prevalent in our nation is certainly “too nice a burden to bear.” And if all that doesn’t persuade you that Dr. King was proper, witness the screaming argument that broke out in Congress over how finest to recollect Charlie Kirk.
I watched a number of interviews with well-known individuals in the previous couple of days concerning the taking pictures of Kirk. The one which caught with me was one with Patty Davis. She is the daughter of Ronald Reagan and is aware of too effectively the havoc wreaked by gun violence. “It’s not useful for well-known individuals to say that’s not who we’re within the U.S.,” she stated. “All of the proof says that it’s certainly who we’re.”
As we wrestle with what’s gone mistaken in our nation, I can’t assist however consider this comment by Dr. King. As tough as love will be, the toll taken by hate is so nice that we, as people and as a individuals, can’t bear it. Hate makes us suspicious of our neighbors close to and much. Hate makes us worth being proper on the expense of {our relationships}. Hate makes our stomachs harm and our minds shut. Hate is simply too nice a burden for each the hated and the hater.
So what can we do? I believe it begins with Christians. We’re presupposed to be disciples of Jesus, which suggests we sample our lives after him. There may be an previous Jewish blessing: “Could you be coated by the mud of your rabbi.” In different phrases, you must stick so near your instructor that you’re coated by the identical mud that covers your instructor.
Previously few years, as our cultural dialogue has change into so poisonous, I’ve been studying the 4 gospels repeatedly as a result of one of the simplest ways I do know to change into like Jesus is to find out about him. I’m no theologian or historian, however I’ve seen a number of issues about Jesus: he by no means is impatient, he by no means jams his ideas down anybody’s throat, he by no means belittles the marginalized, he by no means calls down the powers that be (in his case all of the angel armies) to beat those that try to harm him. I might go on, however it’s clear that the lifetime of our Lord is in nice distinction to the hate spewed by varied present factions in our nation.
A number of years in the past, I taught a seminar on Dr. King at Tennessee State College, and I invited John Seigenthaler to talk to my class about MLK. He was a journalist who ultimately grew to become editor and writer of The Tennessean in Nashville. Seigenthaler left journalism briefly within the Sixties to change into the executive assistant for Robert F. Kennedy, then the Legal professional Normal of the US.
Mr. Seigenthaler labored intently with RFK on civil rights and was current at many key occasions in that battle. The occasions he witnessed have been spectacular, however I’ll always remember his reply to a scholar who requested him to explain MLK in a single phrase. With out hesitation, John Seigenthaler stated, “Love.”
“King actually believed in nonviolence, it wasn’t simply one thing he talked about,” he stated. “I noticed him spit on, cursed, hit, jailed, and way more and by no means as soon as did he strike again with violence or spew toxic phrases. He all the time reacted with love.”
Dr. King’s lesson in love got here straight from Jesus. So what does love appear to be? First, we have a look at the lifetime of Jesus so intently that we get his “mud” on us. Second, Paul’s description of affection in I Corinthians is kind of expansive:
Love is affected person, love is form. It doesn’t envy, it doesn’t boast, it isn’t proud. It doesn’t dishonor others, it isn’t self-seeking, it isn’t simply angered, it retains no document of wrongs. Love doesn’t enjoyment of evil however rejoices with the reality. It all the time protects, all the time trusts, all the time hopes, all the time perseveres.
Love by no means fails. However the place there are prophecies, they may stop; the place there are tongues, they are going to be stilled; the place there may be data, it can move away.
And so, like Dr. King and Jesus, I’ve determined to stay with love. Our nation has already seen the despair, the destruction, and the demise that hate has borne. Christians know higher than anybody how far people have fallen; but disciples of Jesus are those that imagine that “we love as a result of he first liked us.” My prayer is that Christ would so indwell us that his love is what we keep on with.
