Two years ago I was invited to participate in the Mooresville County MLK Breakfast as the keynote. I was honored and humbled by the ask. As with each #MLK I take a moment to reflect on his life and legacy and how God's divine hand ensured that Dr. King arrived at the time he was to in history in order to create history. God's timing is always perfect. So on the eve of his actually birthday, I share an excerpt of the speech I gave that day.
An Excerpt from the MLK Speech I (Monica G. Wood) delivered January 15, 2011 in Mooresville, NC at a Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast
"Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?" This is a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As your MLK Day theme states: “How Loud is Your Voice in Community Service?” My question to you is simply, “What are you doing for others?”
Have you ever heard the saying actions speak louder than words? Your actions serve as your voice. Your actions speak to what you believe in. Your actions speak what you’ve been taught. Your actions speak how you feel.
Dr. King’s actions confirmed everything he said.
He said: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
He said: "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward."
He said: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
He said: "Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way."
He said: "Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude."He said: "People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they have not communicated with each other."
Although Dr. King was a man of many words, he was also a man of many actions. What he spoke about, he did. What he said, he practiced. In his actions, he stood up against injustice through marches, sit ins, boycotts. And, although he spoke about forgiving your enemy its in his actions that we see he did, even while being knocked down, taken to jail, bitten by dogs, stabbed, slapped, spit at and cursed by people who didn’t agree with what he was saying or doing. And, how was he able to do this...because he loved people. Yes, he even loved those who didn’t love him back.
He practiced the love he spoke about. But, WAY before he could speak about it, he first saw and believed it didn’t exist. He saw how mean people treated each other just because their skin was a different color. He found HIS voice in wanting everyone to love one another, than he spoke about it and than he acted on it. National Commentator, Author, TV/Radio Host Tavis Smiley says, “You can’t lead the people, if you can’t first serve the people. And, you can’t serve the people, if you don’t first love the people.” I want to add, you can’t love the people if you don’t first love yourself.
Before your voice can be found and heard, you must first find love. When you look in the mirror, do you love the person, the face you see starring back at you? Do you love how you were made and who you are and where you’re from and what you look like?
You can’t give love to another person until you first know how to love yourself. Many of us first learn what love is and how love feels and how to show love from our parents. Our parents tell us they love us as a child and prayerfully will continue to tell us when we grow up. Before I get off the phone with my parents we always say, “I love you.” And, that makes me smile.
Kids, when you hear your parents say, “I love you” how does that make you feel, good right? But, don’t you believe or feel it more when they give you a hug or kiss or a smile? Their actions along with their words have more of an impact on you.
Dr. King said, “Without love, there is no reason to know anyone, for love will in the end connect us to our neighbors, our children and our hearts." And, in the bible it is written that you must love your neighbor as you love yourself.
The love you have in your heart for yourself, for your parents, for your family is the place where your voice begins to take shape. Because of how love makes you feel, you are excited to move forward in extending that great feeling towards others. So, loving yourself is the first step in finding your voice in community service.
After you find love and begin to operate in love, you then can begin to find your voice.
I asked you in the beginning of my speech, “What are you doing for others?” Now, I am asking what do you want to do for others? What do you see wrong in the community that you want to change?
Dr. King said, "Find a voice in a whisper." What’s whispering to you? When you identify what’s whispering to you, you have found your voice.
Maybe bullying is whispering to you. Maybe the fact your friend’s only meals are the ones they eat in school is you whispering to you. Maybe seeing crime committed by other youth in your community is whispering to you.
Whatever it is...once you have found your voice through that whisper...the next thing you must do is speak on it.
Express your dislike for how someone is being mistreated, or share how you want to donate things to someone in need. Share how you feel about an issue happening within your community with your friends, family, teachers, pastor, community leaders. Let people hear how you feel.
After people hear how you feel, let them see how you feel...take action to make a change. Allow your actions to speak, so everyone also hears you...by what they see you doing.
You have to begin to walk your talk.
And, understand that no action is a small one. Every good thing done speaks volumes and creates an impact larger than you can imagine.
As Dr. King puts it likes this, "No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." He also said, "The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: 'If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?' But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"
What will happen if you don’t help your classmate? What will happen if you don’t help your friend? What will happen if you don’t help your school? What will happen if you don’t help your neighborhood? What will happen if you don’t help your community? What will happen if you don’t help your city? What will happen if you don’t help your state? What will happen if you don’t help your country? What will happen if you don’t help your world?
What would have happened if a man named Rev. Marcus Garvey Wood had not stepped in between Dr. King and a fellow seminarian who had pulled a gun on him?
Marcus Garvey Wood is my 90 year old grandfather. He was a fellow classmate of Dr. King’s at Crozier Seminary in Pennsylvania one of only 11 African Americans on the campus. Out of the 11, only two are still alive, my grandfather who still pastors in Baltimore and Rev. Whitaker in Virginia.
Dr. King was known by a few to be a prankster. However, a prank that was pulled on a white classmate named Hall, was not done by King. But, Hall assumed it was King, so he went looking for him in anger and when he found him, Hall pulled a pistle out on King.
Now remember this was 1948, at the peak of segregation and King was from down south, Georgia, a segregated state. So, even seminary was not a fair or safe place for all students. Anyway, my grandfather happened to hear the argument between King and Hall and stepped in between the two...talking Hall out of doing Dr. King harm. He, my grandfather, was the oldest student at the school and was already a pastor, so people tended to view him as being wise. Needless, to say, Hall not too soon after left seminary.
Now, my question again is what would have happened if my grandfather had not stepped in? What would’ve happened if he had run out of the room for safety? Maybe, just maybe I would not be standing here today talking about MLK. We will never know.
But, what we do know is that the actions of my grandfather that day spoke louder than his words. He stepped in to help someone else....forgetting the danger he was placing himself in. I want to read an excerpt from a book of reflections on Dr. King that my grandfather was invited to share some of his reflections to help illustrate my point.
We entered seminary together, at Crozier in Chester, Pennsylvania. There were only 11 of us black students at this white school. We had to make the adjustment, and that was very difficult for those from the Deep South. He had not been accustomed to sitting at the same table as whites, and this was an example of what he hoped America would come to. Everybody was under the spell of change, and when entered seminary he said, “We’re going to change this nation.” God led him to Montgomery. I told him not to go. I’m eight years older, and I told him he could get a better church in the North and he said, “That’s where I’m needed. I’m going South.” Then when I saw that little church (Dexter), I saw that God had a hand in it. God brought a Ph.D. to trouble waters and it’s been rippling ever since. (Rev. Marcus Garvey Wood)
As you can hear from that reflection on Dr. King by my grandfather and as we know from history told Dr. King found his voice at an early stage in his life. He found his voice, spoke on what he saw was wrong and then took action to change it. Day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year until he was sadly killed this is what he did.
Your voice alone will change some things. However, your voice accompanied by your actions can change the world.
Dr. King’s life is an awesome example of the impact that is made from speaking loudly through our actions. He said, "Not everybody could be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service."
He also said that, “Anytime is the right time to do right.”
Lets continue what he started and lets start today.
Thank you.
