M. L. King, Jr. & Howard Thurman Action & Contemplation
The following meditation is from Energion author Kent Ira Groff, and is used by permission. You can learn more about Kent’s works at linkyourspirituality.com.
In each weekly reflection you’ll find a timely quote for personal or group meditation or for public speaking along with art or a poem.
M. L. King, Jr. & Howard Thurman
Action & Contemplation
Action & Contemplation
As this photo shows, Martin Luther King Jr. was the out-front force of the civil rights movement, yet its behind-the-scenes soul was Howard Thurman (click link below). In the movie Selma, while crossing Alabama’s Edmund Pettus Bridge in the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery–abruptly King falls to his knees in prayer. When King silently rises, 2,000 perplexed supporters trudge back to Selma–including young John Lewis. King withdraws into a dark time for twelve days.* Then comes the court order via Pres. Lyndon Johnson’s intervention with federal troops, to make King’s final crossing the crucial turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. A contemplative pause in the activemarch countered hate with love–which King had internalized from his mentor Thurman–who had personally met with Mahatma Gandhi.
*Christ’s kenosis = emptying (see Philippians 2:5-11) parallels Hebrew zimzum (the Creator contracts, stepping back to allow space for the creatures in Kabalistic creation story).
Click: See Howard Thurman and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Silence for Reflection….
Pause… Reflect on a time you pulled back from a project…. or life emptied your plans…. Can you see any change in the trajectory of your life journey or purpose?
Kent Ira Groff ©Permission to use; just city the source.