Dream Deferred

"I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."-Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

I am saddened by the fact that the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. has still not been realized. Today we live in a world where racism and prejudices are still a cancer that is eating away at the image of God. We live in a world where a man is measured by the color of his skin, by the amount in his bank account, by the position he holds in society, by the number on the scale, or now by his sexual orientation. The character of a man is the last thing that he is measured by in much of the world today.

Since I can remember I battled the beasts of rejection and depression, brought on by my bought with bigotry. At ever turn I was forced to come face to face with the fact that in more than one way I did not belong. I was a half black half white child living in various white neighborhoods. I was the husky kid in class who never came in first in a foot race. The fact that I was different was something that my teachers, my peers, the police, and society at large would not allow me to forget. The isolation I experienced as a result of the rejection was the catalyst that drove me into severe depression.

As much as I told myself that I just do not care what people say or think, I could never truly swallow that as the truth. I would go for long periods of time unaffected by the constant barrage of negativity levied at me, but every now and then a barb would hit a chink in my seeming impenetrable armor.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."-Genesis 1:27

As long as we search we will always find reasons why we treat each other the way we do. We will always find excuses that allow us to continue to disfigure the image of God. But regardless how biblical you feel you are acting, or how justified you feel the truth is we are in sin if we continue to degrade the image of God. I believe that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. saw the potential of humanity to finally see the divine in every single individual. Would you say that about the person you are degrading if they were Jesus? The fact of the matter is that person is Jesus and you are tearing down your savior.