In
your own words, defined the difference between being content and
being complacent. Are you doing all you can do to fulfill the call of
God in your life? (Strength for Every Moment by TJ Jakes, page
11).
It
was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a
trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things,
and I knowed it [whether within socially accepted and “religiously
correct” practice to betray Jim and leave him in slavery or rescue
him]. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to
myself:"All right, then, I'll go to hell"- and tore it up.
It
was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said. And I let
them stay said; and never thought no more about reforming. I shoved
the whole thing out of my head; and said I would take up wickedness
again, which was in my line, being brung up to it, and the other
warn't. And for a starter, I would go to work and steal Jim out of
slavery again; and if I could think up anything worse, I would do
that, too; because as long as I was in, and in for good, I might as
well go the whole hog.” (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
(Chapter 31) by Mark Twain).
Today
thoughts turn to the March on Washington 50 years ago and the oratory
of Martin Luther King Jr. His words chisel forever withstanding even
in the winds of time the quintessential purpose of America: to be
judged by the content of character, not the color of skin or any
other secondary matter.
I
think Martin Luther King despite the strife in which he found himself
was in his soul content – he was assuredly fulfilling the call of
God in his life. Yet, obviously he was not complacent. Complacency at
its core is escapism. For example, I ignore watching what I eat
because I do not face the reality of the physical consequences of
eating junk food. But perhaps more typical is the escapism that
blocks off the pain of others. Thus in some Third World countries,
for example, we have palatial mansions situated in the midst of
abject poverty. How do we account for the complacency that allows for
total obliviousness to the pain of others – including perhaps most
strikingly, the pain of children. Why over millennia has this become
ingrained in human behavior?
Somewhere
and somehow we seem to have learned that personal well-being is
crucial for survival even at the expense of the well-being of others.
There are cases in fact when we must admit this approach is
necessary. At some advanced point, I should not enter a burning house
to save even crying and terrified children. Yet we somehow have
allowed these extreme cases (and extreme cases make for bad law) to
become deeply influential in our routine thought patterns – even in
matters to which they do not even remotely apply. Even the very
reverse is in fact most often true; if we do not take into account the welfare
of others our own welfare and that of our children are doomed. I think
the next great advance socially in American society will come from
tackling the issue of wealth distribution – how its immediate
sources are frequently removed from its eventual distribution. Yet
because of Dr. Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights Movement, and 50
years of progress on this front; I feel hopeful and confident that
when the time has come America will address and solve this issue.
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