This past week, I have been impressed with the sense that my life is snowballing down the road to mediocrity. I could try to deceive myself by listening to others who recite some of my acheivements to me, or even trying to recite them to myself, but the fact of the matter is that I have very little going for me right now that would have made my life worth living…
When faced with the prospect of Black History Month on the horizon, and having been presented the lives of Martin Luther King, Jr., Wangari Maathai, and even Cornel West, I place my life next to theirs and say… “What here is worthy of death?”
I mean, sure these are some high standards to relate to, and in the words of Cornel West “No one is on the level of Martin and Malcom except maybe some brothers and sisters who we never heard of because they got shot while doing their work.” Even so, can I say that my life is even worthy of the legacy of those never heard of??
I think that this point was brought into full focus during a recent discussion with my brother. We were speaking and he asked me, “What black personality in the last 20 years would you tell your kids about?” I responded, after thinking intently for several minutes of course, Barack Obama. My brother disagrees with me sharply, but the point is that even if he agreed, we could come up with only one name between the two of us… And if the criteria were the self-sacrificial love for the black and american communities, and even global communities, even Barack Obama might fall short as of yet.
So, when a university official ended a capstone event for MLK day on Monday with the question: “How has MLK changed your life?” I had to answer by saying his life (and that of many others… Hirsi-Ali, Sala Udin, Eugene Burrell, Paul Farmer, and so many we haven’t even heard of) makes me ask, what am I willing to die for? What am I doing or striving towards that will make my life and death meaningful to those who knew about me? Am I living with these questions in mind, am I living with the mind of Christ, or am I just loving mediocrity and comfort with all of my heart, mind, and soul? MLK and the legacy of so many who have gone before have changed my life by making me ask questions… making me hope to be true to the standard that God has placed in my heart, and not the relative standards that we so often use to help us justify our pursuit of selfish comforts…
“… I tell you, unless a seed falls to the ground and dies, it cannot bear much fruit…” –Jesus Christ