MLK and the Gift of Rejection
I am honored today to participate in the celebration of one of our countries finest sons – Rev Martin Luther King Jr. To reflect and remember this legacy in Atlanta amongst friends and family of the late MLK is both Humbling and Inspiring.
What is perhaps most amazing in the midst of our National Canonized Respect for MLK is that at the time of his death, he had the LOWEST Public Approval Rating of any point in his life. Abysmally low. His continued persistence in the work our country had yet to do in the ongoing struggle of equality, his stance against the Vietnam War, and relentlessness presence left him rejected not only by those that opposed him (largely White), but by those who first supported him and sought to make him live up to his name – King (mostly Black).
At the time of his death he was on a downward spiral of rejection and abandonment within the country he fought so hard to unite. This is perhaps why we celebrate and remember him to this very day.
He could have very easily settled for Acceptance. He could have said what people wanted to hear. He could have taken a nice job on a Sunday Morning Talkshow and enjoyed a lifetime of the unripened fruit of legacy. But…he did not. And here I am today not only remembering, but reflecting.
Am I willing to Speak Up and Speak Out, even it means that I will be Kicked Out. Am I willing to Stand For and not just Stand By. Am I willing to Walk On into my convictions no matter what the cost, rather than just Walk By.
And I suppose I would ask the same of you – Where are you being given the Gift of Rejection that affords you in it’s solitary fire the opportunity to have forged within you what God has put inside you? What are you willing to say? What are you willing to do? Even if it costs you everything that you thought once mattered.
