Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It is a day when we honor a man who allowed God to work through him and begin the process of social justice for an oppressed population here in the United States. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t somebody who just woke up one day, looked around and decided that this was his cause. He had been preparing for his whole life for this, whether he knew it or not. There’s the famous story about him when he was a child and he couldn’t play with his friends because they were white and he was black. He also got his doctorate in systematic theology, and presumably came to know God better through that. Christ was real and evident in his life because there are very few people who can go through the hardship and the terror that King and his family went through without leaning on Christ.
In remembrance of Dr. King’s most famous speech, these are the dreams that I have. My dream for Iowa is that the churches across the state would unite together. Not physically, of course, but we would recognize each other as brothers and sisters; not as separate denominations, but as family split apart by distance more than minor pieces of theology that don’t hinder salvation. I dream that we would learn community more than just the confines of small groups or specific churches, but that we would be able to work together to reach out to the lost, so that they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
My other dream, not only for Iowa, but for the world is the eradication of human trafficking. I dream of the day when people will look at each other and see value far more than the dollar sign they see now. My World Race will take me to countries where human trafficking is not only accepted, but part of the social norm. There’s a story that haunts me from years ago. Some prominent Christian singer was giving an interview on the radio about a trip to India she had just gotten back from. I don’t remember the whole story, but part of it involved a five year old girl caged in the streets, being sold for sex to the next person with money. I never saw pictures, only what I pictured in my mind, but that idea has stuck with me. My dream is that that particular abomination would be abolished and its abolition would be taken for granted.
I am not the next Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I would never claim status similar to his. I do hope to follow in his footsteps and seek justice for the broken, vulnerable and lost.
