MLK: The Great Stumbling Block

King: The Great Stumbling Block 

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace of justice; who says, ‘I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a ‘more convenient season.’”—Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” April 16, 1963.

The Atlantic

I repeat part of the message from MLK this morning, for this letter from jail still speaks so profoundly to us in another century. We live in a time of paradox that continually shuttles us between “be patient” and “time to act.” How do we know which to do? Part of MLK’s message is that what is a “more convenient season” for one is not so for another. Most of us do not understand what it is like to walk in the shoes of those who have been oppressed for years, even centuries. Yet, I also know that in my life, if I wait for the “most convenient time,” that time will never be, never happen.

When is the most convenient time to get married, have children, tell the truth, visit the sick, go to church, write, read, go on vacation, or retire? I remember what a friend early in my recovery said at a 12-step meeting many years ago: “I am all right as long as I have all my ducks in a row.” Well, my experience is that those ducks never perfectly line up in a row! There is always some inconvenience that will keep our ducks in disarray and prevent us from doing anything we know is the next right thing we feel called to do.

We try to find “the most convenient time” to pray, meditate, and be silent. But, there is always some reason that something else should be done instead, especially marking off the other things on our to-do list for the day.

We are called to “make time” for these things by deciding on priorities. We know this, but the doing is the hard part.

 So, we want to thank MLK today for putting us in our place, reminding us to listen more carefully to the cries of the oppressed, to the parts of ourselves oppressed—and the details of the needy, just like ourselves, who come for spiritual direction. We are called to listen, listen, and reach out, even at the most inconvenient times.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Leaving the Land of the Numb

Guest Writer: Don Follis

In my memoir Leaving The Land of Numb—A Journey To Connect My Emotional And Spiritual Lives (Mountain Ash Press, 2023), I tell the story of how, at age 14, my first boss told me I was the only person who ever worked for him that he couldn't teach how to do the job. To make matters worse, he was a man in our church and friends with my Dad and Mom. Neither of them ever intervened to help me make sense of what happened. The rest of my growing-up years, I mostly avoided the man.

Years later, following seminary, I spoke at my home church one Sunday. My old boss was there, and he shook my hand afterward. “Congratulations,” he said. “I never thought you could do it.”

I went on to serve 25 years as a campus pastor at the University of Illinois, and now have served 46 years in the ministry. One Sunday as a young campus pastor, I spoke at a rural church an hour from my home. Returning home, I started smiling from ear to ear. It suddenly occurred to me that I had forgiven my first boss. As I drove through the countryside, I thought about my hurt from years ago. I began empathizing with the old fellow, whose life had been hard. He had lost his wife, and my parents told me he was in poor health. He needed my love way more than my derision. Though I thought I had forgiven him, all alone in my car that day, I felt it as never before and said, “I forgive you old boy, and wish you all the best. May the peace of Jesus be with you.” I told the Lord I wanted to be a man committed to forgiveness for the long term, come what may in my life. 

Over decades of ministry, I have seen how forgiveness challenges seeking revenge and the need for reciprocity. Forgiveness is the one force in the world that invites us to approach people with love, giving us a desire for their well-being. That means giving up our natural inclination to protect ourselves and seeking justice on our terms. As we have received forgiveness from God, we extend the same forgiveness to others, even when it’s difficult or painful.

 Don  Follis

Don’s memoir, now available on Amazon, tells how he learned to feel his emotions, both painful and positive. His journey took him through a teenage marriage and divorce, rejection by the church because of that divorce, the death of his son, and a new vision of the richness of the emotional life of Jesus.

Joanna https://www.joannaseibert.com/

All Souls Day continued: Generous Heart, Columbus

All Souls Day: Generous Heart, Columbus

“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints…

Many people think of saints as plaster saints, men and women of such paralyzing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or did an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterizing themselves that way.”–Frederick Buechner initially published in Wishful Thinking and later in Beyond Words. 

Columbus

Buechner reminds us that being a saint is less about ourselves and more about the way God, for some reason, works through and redeems the mess of our lives. Yesterday was All Saints Day, where we remember the saints of the church who have died. Today is All Souls Day, where we remember all the faithful departed. I cannot help but remember Columbus, someone well known by all in the recovery community in Little Rock, Arkansas, only by his first name. Every year, usually early in the morning on the birthday of your sobriety, you get a phone call from Columbus. You waited in anticipation for that call, celebrating one more year of an alternative life with someone you knew only over the phone lines.

Columbus’ wife of forty-six years would leave him three times before he went into his last rehabilitation, after many DWIs and missed work, and days when she admitted not knowing where he was. Columbus died in the thirty-eighth year of his sobriety and was credited with having led thousands of men and women worldwide to sobriety.

Columbus made 15,000 calls a year and almost half a million calls before his death. He also called people he knew were no longer in recovery and told them he cared about them. As a result, many people say they returned to recovery because of Columbus.

Columbus’ wife described his change when he went into recovery as “truly unbelievable. He became a dedicated and involved father and grandfather after he came so close to losing his family.”

When I hear people wonder what they could do to make a difference in the world, I tell them Columbus’ story: one man with a generous heart picking up the phone every day and changing lives with a simple phone call. One day at a time.

This may be the way saints live. They are resurrection people. They know all too well what Good Friday is like. Yet, God continues to change them and the world one day, one phone call at a time.  

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com  https://www.joannaseibert.com/