Haiti, MLK and Shattered Dreams
Tonight I simultaneously sipped some herbal tea and Martin Luther King Jr. writings. I came across an exquisite sermon he wrote in a Georgia jail entitled, “Shattered Dreams”. As I took in the flavor of MLK’s sermon about ‘absorbing the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope’ (Strength to Love, King, p.95) freshly painted pictures and video’s of Haiti’s crisis of the devastating 7.0 earthquake plauged my mind that I had just viewed on the Al-Jezeera news website.
The dreams and hopes to trade a better future for a weary past in Haiti were smashed in a matter of seconds. Death. Agony. Destruction.
MLK Jr’s dreams of non-violence, freedom, equality and ‘transforming the dangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood’ (I Have a Dream) linger on unrealized in the midst of violence, wars and greed that plauge our nation.
MLK asks the question in his sermon, “what do we do with unsatisfied hopes?”
He preaches to us to honestly confront our shattered dreams. This is the first step toward redemption. Applying this ointment of MLK’s preaching to our wounds today; What if we honestly confront our own smashed hopes of a better world and a better life? What if we honestly confront what has happened to our Haitian neighbors to the south? What if we daringly stared at these shattered dreams and mustered enough faith to believe that God dwells with us and with those in life’s most confining and oppressive circumstances?
I don’t know what would happen. I’d like to hear your thoughts.
I’m left thinking what else can we do but keep caravaning into the mystery of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazereth as the gateway to find hope in utter brokenness.
Tags: earthquake, Haiti, hope, Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., sermons, shattered dreams, strength to love
i thought thinks like thus= man. i wish i had more recess is, i mean, resources. i wish there was a quick fix. i wish i could pick ppl up before they fall down. i wish i could pick ppl up after they fall down …or lay down witem… i think, momentum is big, but hope is bigger and nothin starts nowhere without a step.
mlk’s dream, haiti rebuild, strength to love, and all that- those are Decisions. was it rousseau? someone said something to the effect of= the abolishment of slavery is my not having slaves. i dont mean to say that its an overnight kind of thing… just more permanent that way. word fucking up jesse and justin.