It was Mar­tin Luther King Jr. day yes­ter­day. Dr. King was a true hero, in the same breath as oth­ers we con­sider great and mighty in our Chris­t­ian tra­di­tion. Intrigue and admi­ra­tion would be what I think of, when­ever I’ve thought of this great man.

As a Chris­t­ian, Dr. King grace­fully and duti­fully held on to the impli­ca­tions of com­pas­sion, jus­tice, and truth. It was never just about black equal­ity or anti-​​war sen­ti­ments. He appro­pri­ately responded to what he saw around him in soci­ety and culture.

Dr. King was not tempted by the ease of the ‘unex­am­ined life’. He did not wait for soci­ety to change or adjust. He saw a sit­u­a­tion, spoke up, and did some­thing about it. He tried to mir­ror Jesus in his words, actions, and lifestyle. He was will­ing to stand up for what was right regard­less of the obsta­cles he faced.

As Chris­tians, we would honor the mem­ory of Dr. King, not by our adu­la­tion of the man him­self, but by instead look­ing to the bedrock of Dr. King’s faith and action in the per­son of Jesus. As a Christ-​​follower, Jesus would ask me to bear out the impli­ca­tions of fol­low­ing Him.

When I encounter the bro­ken­ness of the world around me
When I see my brother or sis­ter in need
When evil and injus­tice have trans­planted right­eous­ness and truth
When it is eas­ier for me to live in Christianity’s cocoon of reli­gios­ity
When my beliefs and ideals do not agree with my prac­tice and lifestyle

As I look at the life of Dr. King I am con­vinced more than ever, that if we incar­nate Jesus to the world around us, we will make a mas­sive dif­fer­ence. Stones might be thrown our way, our words might be mis­con­strued, our actions might be mis­rep­re­sented, and we might even have to give up our lives for a greater cause.

It wouldn’t be easy or fun, but it would be ful­fill­ing and sac­ri­fi­cial. Our first and per­fect exam­ple in all of this is Jesus…

I some­times won­der what life would be like in Amer­ica for me, a non-​​white immi­grant, if nobody fought for Civil Rights…

Dr. King lived true to what Jesus would asked of him, in the face of seem­ingly insur­mount­able obstacles.

I know I can too…