– It may seem an odd “mash-up” to pair Martin Luther King Jr. with a modern rock song (Resistance, by Muse) … but I think the message is the same.  The opening line of the chorus, “Love is our resistance” … seems to fit not only what I got from my meditation, but also Dr. King’s message at the end of this post. –

Today I meditated upon the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and I came out of my meditation inspired by the word “courage” … but the vision I have of that courage is almost more a positive brand of stubbornness, than the nobility we normally associate with such a word.

The visions that flashed through my head were of situations (real, and imagined) where the figure in those visions would harden their jaw, refuse to budge, and stand there to receive whatever may come.  Now that particular picture does seem somewhat grandiose, but when you put that into real life situations it takes on a different milieu.

What if you have a friend who is going through suffering more agonizing than anything you could ever imagine?  They don’t want you, or anyone else, around … they just want to be alone.  How does courage look there?  See, this is where it begins to look like stubbornness.  If they are truly your friend, and your love for them is pure … then you will stand with them, no matter what.  You will watch them scream, and cry, and even take whatever they lash out at you with because they are processing their pain … because you are the only one there to take it.  You know it to be the right thing, the LOVING thing, and that is all that matters.

The same could be said about someone you see being abused, or bullied.  If you stand up for them, the abuse may then be turned on you.  If you help someone in need on the streets, you may have to have less for yourself at dinner that night.  If you’ve lived a life of excess, but want to escape, your habits and addictions draw you unmercifully.  No matter what the scenario, courage is about will … stubborn will.  Sometimes the worst form of torture you have to stand up to … is what you do to yourself.

The stubbornness innate in courage will urge you to seek out what is right, what is true, what is LOVE … and trust that, no matter what hardships you endure along the way, your final ending place will be the RIGHT one.  For in that space you are on the path that God would have you be on.

Before I began writing this, I searched the internet for something that seemed to fit the picture that I had in my head.  Fittingly, I found ANOTHER quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that embodied all of this:

History will have to record
That the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition
Was not the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people
But the appalling silence and indifference of the good.
Our generation will have to repent not
Only for the words and actions of the children of darkness
But also for the fears and apathy of the
children of light.

Martin Luther King Jr. – in a speech at the Dinkier Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia

Be strong … do not be silent … and be stubbornly courageous.

Peace and Love.

——-

Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.

We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!

There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.

By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.

In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.

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