I Have a Dream.

In a Charles Schultz cartoon – Linus is speaking to Charlie Brown, and he says, “I guess it’s wrong to be always worrying about tomorrow. Maybe we should only think about today.” Charlie Brown responds with, “No, that’s giving up, I’m still hoping that yesterday will get better.”

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the 4^th of April 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee. Five years earlier, On August 28, 1963, he had delivered the “I have a Dream” speech to a massive group of civil rights marchers gathered around the Lincoln memorial in Washington DC. I consider this to be one of the greatest and significant speeches of the 20^th century. In my year 8 English class I have my students listen to the 17-minute speech, annotate it, and study the brilliantly executed literary devices it contains. The last one third of the speech was spontaneous, flowing naturally from his passionate heart. We also listen to the brilliant and stirring response that senator Robert Kennedy gave that evening when the news broke of kings assasination – his speech was also spontaneous and brilliant. On the 6th of June 1968, only two months after Luther’s assassination, he also was assassinated. The point being that these men (and many others) raised their voices against the wrongs in the world. Do you have a voice?

One of the great troubles in this world is most people spend their lives chasing from one dream to another, one achievement to another, adding possession to possession. Their thinking is that they will be able to squeak into the kingdom before sunset. We want the best of this world, but we don’t want to miss out on the next. We are clawing handfuls of earthly sand, when we should be clinging to the Rock of Ages.            

Martin Luther King Jnr, in one of his sermons, listed ten things God will never ask you:

1.God won’t ask what kind of car you drove; He’ll ask how many people you drove who didn’t have transportation.

2.God won’t ask the square footage of your house; He’ll ask how many people you welcomed into your home.

3.God won’t ask about the clothes you had in your closet; He’ll ask how many you helped to clothe.

4.God won’t ask what your highest salary was; He’ll ask if you compromised your character to obtain it.

5.God won’t ask what your job title was; He’ll ask if you performed your job to the best of our ability.

6.God won’t ask how many friends you had; He’ll ask how many people to whom you were a friend.

7.God won’t ask in what neighbourhood you lived; He’ll ask how you treated your neighbours.

8.God won’t ask about the colour of your skin; He’ll ask about the content of your character.

9.God won’t ask why it took you so long to seek salvation through Jesus His son; He’ll lovingly take you to your home in heaven.

  “God gives nothing to those who keep their arms crossed.”