Friday 6 February 2009

Great story for a Friday - again by MLK in "The Strength to Love."

Soft-minded individuals are prone to embrace all kinds of superstitions. Their minds are constantly invaded by irrational fears, which range from fear of Friday the thirteenth to fear of a black cat crossing one's path. As the elevator made its upward climb in one of the large hotels in New York City, I noticed for the first time that there was no thirteenth floor - floor fourteen followed floor twelve. On inquiring from the elevator operator the reason for this omission, he said, "This practiced is followed by most large hotels because of the fear of numerous people to stay on the thirteenth floor." Then he added, "The real foolishness of the fear is to be found in the fact that the fourteenth floor is actually the thirteenth." Such fears leave the soft minded haggard by day and haunted by night.

The one who pursues false gods - idols - can never stop following them. In fact, no matter how ridiculous is the false god or how damaging it is to life, the one who follows such an idol must give his/her life to its service. Such it is with the soft-minded. When we are soft-minded about the way we look out at the world...when we buy the "word on the street" as though it is true. We must live by it and sacrifice all other life. Just now I thought of the conversation around torture in our country. For years, the world community has agreed on what constitutes torture. We have said we are in complete agreement with such a worldwide opinion. And then, we pretend that some things are not torture. We live on the fourteenth floor even though we are on the thirteenth. We really know it is wrong but we will live according to the lies that are ruled by our fears rather than live within the realm of truthfulness.

Connection: We all must learn to identify the ruling gods that try to grasp control of the day and turn us into people we are not.

Keep us turning to you alone, O God. Keep us looking for the truthfulness of your Reign that cannot be overturned by the gods of our lives that continue to try to win over our hearts and lives and turn away from you. Amen.