"I will not be silent…I will not rest – not until her integrity shines like dawn, her deliverance like a flaming torch." Isaiah 62:1  - The Inclusive Bible

   Everyone paying attention in the 1950s and '60s knew about discrimination. Many condemned it.

   But most remained silent. Even more did nothing. 

   Common words are not common actions. 

   Only when we discover our insignificance can we learn our significance. 

   The "flaming torch" of integrity raised into the southern nights by Martin Luther King did more than light our way. King carried God's fire. It is the fire that delivers us into our best selves. 

   King's uncommon eloquence galvanized us. The fire of his torch burned some into action. His example humbled us allowing us to see our true significance.

   The gap between belief and action is often wide.

   I believed in integration but didn't leave college to join the freedom walks. I opposed the war in Vietnam but didn't leave law school to join the anti-war protests. I applauded the pioneers and was afraid to be one. 

   Love is hard to live. How much easier to admire the strength of others from a safe distance.

   Yet, there are ways we express our quiet boldness. I admire every caregiver with the strength to thrust their hands into the body of a bleeding patient.

   I applaud those who sit each day beside the dying. I live in awe of those who find the patience to accompany the elderly during their descent into dementia.

   During my work heading a large charitable trust, I twice visited a center for the mentally disabled. In that purgatory I saw people lying in catatonic states and walked near other children of God who stared into space or moaned in corners.

   One patient sat at a piano and played the same note throughout my visit. "He does that every day," the group caregiver reported. The light of Love's torch  burned bright in that caregiver's eyes. 

   It's fine to reflect on King's most glorious moments. What about the gloomy days and terrifying nights when the hell hounds of fear and hate circled him and his followers? Courage flamed up there.

   Your hardest days may be the ones when you feel the light fading. On the edge of burning out, you may struggle to hold onto your calling.

   Thankfully, memories of the torch flicker within. 

   The blood of Martin Luther King flows through us. Like a psalm of David, his words and actions illuminate some part of our path.

   We were blind. He helped us see. He heard the cries of our heart.

   "Everybody has the Blues," King wrote. "Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved."

   Like every great person, Martin Luther King burned us with his hope. He cleared a way through the dense underbrush so that we could take uncommon decency and make it common.

   We are forever touched by the torch of his truth.

-Reverend Erie Chapman

Photo – Channel 3 Phoenix – "Torchlight Run in Honor of Martin Luther King."