Devotional 4-26-13

I want to share some words from one of my most valued teachers (in print only). Howard Thurman was an African American professor, theologian, and pastor one generation before Martin Luther King Jr. In fact he and Dr. King’s father were good friends. There is some speculation as to the extent of his influence upon the younger King that will probably never be quantified, but the following reflection from Thurman certainly foreshadows Dr. King’s way of thinking about the significance and power of love. Enjoy…

“There is a profound ground of unity that is more pertinent and authentic than all the unilateral dimensions of our lives. This a man discovers when he is able to keep open the door of his heart. This is one’s ultimate responsibility, and it is not dependent upon whether the heart of another is kept open for him. Here is a mystery: If sweeping through the door of my heart there moves continually a genuine love for you, it bypasses all your hate and all your indifference and gets through to you at your center. You are powerless to do anything about it. “

“It is impossible to keep another from loving you. True you may scorn that love, you may reject it in all ways within your power, you may try to close every opening in your own heart – it will not matter. This is no easy sentimentality but it is the very essence of the vitality of all being. The word that love is stronger than hate and goes beyond death is the great disclosure to one who has found that when he keeps open the door of his heart, it matters not how many doors are closed against him.”

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And so the Lord says to his disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you”. Jesus have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law. Lord it is again and again a present temptation, to close the door of our hearts upon one person or another. Again and again we are tempted to bar the door, to turn the lock. Jesus can we even find the courage to ask you to break the bar, to strip us of our locks, to oil the hinges? Have mercy upon us Lord, that we might love as you would have us to love; for anything less is not truly love at all. Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Rev. Joseph Hill