The Mountaintop

Today we celebrate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What a remarkable life of service and sacrifice he lived so that our own freedom would ring a song of  sweet, melodic liberty. In his very last speech, he prophetically proclaimed:
 "I don't know what will happen now. We have some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn't matter with me now...I just wanna' do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but...we as a people will get to the Promised Land."

Dr. King paid the ultimate price so that we would have the opportunity to live freely in an America that has fulfilled her promise of democracy and human equality. He climbed the mountain, ascending all the time with each  peaceful demonstration met with violence, each mobilizing speech met with overnight accommodations in a jail cell, each step of faith and love met with degradation and hatred. Dr. King made it to the mountaintop, looked over and caught a redeeming glimpse of a time when the right to vote did not equal a Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. He peered over the peak into a horizon of equal opportunity whether gained through affirmative action legislation or peaceful protest. Perhaps he saw the glorious sun rising on a  day  when Barack Obama would be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. I don't know exactly what Dr. King saw when he went up to that mountaintop of freedom before he would be called home for an eternal rest. But, I can tell you that the climbing is not done.

It is up to those of us who are reaping the benefits of Dr. King's relentless dream and sacrificial service to humanity, to continue the hike. We must keep climbing up the mountain of equality, clutching the coarse terrain with bloodied fingertips, walking in the scorching heat of opposition with sweltering feet until we have too made it to the mountaintop. See, Dr. King wasn't worried about what was to come because he knew that he was leaving enough people behind to take up the fight, to persistently climb the necessary hike to freedom.

Let us honor him with a life of service. In all of our lives, we must mobilize and inspire those who are behind us on the mountain. Inspire that brother or sister to keep climbing. As Dr. King said, "don't let no injunction turn us around!" And so, when you get to the top of the mountain, you won't be worried either about the fate of your cause. For, whatever you have dedicated your life's work to shall be left in the hands of able-bodied climbers with their eyes on the mountaintop. ---Love, BLJ