Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The holiday is in honor of Dr. King, a Baptist preacher who was a prominent leader in the American civil rights movement. His dream was for a future where blacks and whites, among others, would coexist harmoniously as equals. In 1964, at age 35, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. He was assassinated in 1968, before he saw his dream become reality.
Today is the Inauguration of America’s president, Barack Obama. He is beginning his second term in office, the very first African-American to hold this position. I can only image what Dr. King would be thinking, if he were alive today.
I just dropped Carson off at school. He is marching in the MLK Parade today with his JROTC team. He has a desire to go into the military, the Navy, to work on a submarine and to become a nuclear scientist. I don’t even know what that is, but Carson has a dream.
David tells us in Psalms 37:3,4, Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
God wants us to have the desires of our heart. He has a plan for us, and it’s a good one. Jeremiah:11:29, says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Ultimately, regardless of what goes on in the here and now, we have hope and a future – eternity with God, through our acceptance of his son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Savior. That is our ultimate goal, our dream for eternity. As Paul explains:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)
What’s behind might not have been so good, but what’s ahead, well, that is a dream worth pressing on for!