Free At Last

Every year on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I read his "I Have A Dream" speech. Even having grown up in Alabama, it's hard for me to imagine that such a short time ago, African Americans had such a mighty struggle against racial injustice. Yes, racism in all forms is still alive and well, not only in the South, but all over the world in various forms. America is a little more politically correct now, but in other parts of the world, they suffer just as much as our pre-civil rights minority brothers and sisters did.

Every time I read through this speech and get to one of the most famous passages, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!", it kind of makes me sad in a weird way. I don't like to be pessimistic, but I am also a realist. Dr. Martin Luther King describes what, in his opinion, it would mean for us to be really free. Sons of former slave owners and sons of slaves sitting together at the table of brotherhood; little black boys and girls joining hands with little white boys and girls as sisters and brothers. In a sense, Dr. King's dream is being realized. This does happen! Every day! And every day it happens more frequently as the generation of oppressors and oppressed fade into old age and a new generation, my generation, a generation who has no memories of this oppression and who were raised on the solid principles that all men (and women!) are created equal, take the reins.

But this ideal, this dream, will never be fully realized. Why? Because humans are imperfect. We make mistakes, and choose unwisely, and listen to people we shouldn't, and do things we regret. No race is immune to this one human failing. Do you know why Dr. King was a great man? It wasn't just because of his support of Civil Rights. Many men and women, both white and black, sacrificed their lives for this cause. Dr. King was a great man because he lived his life for the one true King. The King of our salvation. Any time he spoke, he spoke of our heavenly Savior, who saves all people. The dream Dr. King describes will never happen on Earth, but it is the high ideal of Heaven. I'll let you in on a secret. Dr. King wasn't perfect either. And neither are you, and neither am I. But he was willing to die for what was right in the eyes of God. Are you?