Dearest Readers,
Yesterday I wrote a kind of meditation on life andĀ death. Well, you want to talk about life and death? Go and seeĀ Soundtrack for a Revolution. I watched a presentation of it last night brought to our fair city by Ā the Yukon Film Society. It’s a filmĀ about the Civil Rights Movement and how Gospel Music played a part in its victory. It’s also about overcoming our greatest fear.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was the Movement’s central figure, said something in one of his speeches that rocked me to my core. He said, “In order to have freedom we must overcome this fear of death.”
Okay, their lives were on the line. He said this because the protesters were being killed. He knew he might well be killed. He was killed. But those words of his, they are, in my opinion, The Greatest Truth of All. They are relevant in all of our lives, everyday, no matter who we are.
For even when there is no danger, even when we have all of our rights and all of our dignities and desires, we can still be imprisoned by fear.
At the end of the movie I heard a young woman say that she thought it was a powerful film “except for the religious stuff.” Hello? She missed the whole point. It was Dr. King’s faith, his utter devotion to the Gospel of Peace and Justice, thatĀ drove him and, in fact, carried the entire Movement, leadingĀ ultimately to its victory.
Our present circumstances may not seem as dire. Today, the majority of North American people do not feel oppressed by injustice. And yet I would venture to say that the majority of us are oppressed by our fear.
The call to “Let Freedom Reign” can be just as significant in our lives today, just as meaningful, if we are shackled by childhood fears, held back by Old BS (belief systems), strangled by trauma and shame.
The Civil Rights Movement was such an unbelievably monumental happening. It was a Seismic Shift in both Inner and Outer Consciousness. It changed government and it changed hearts and minds. What cannot be dismissed is the undeniable Truth of its Message. At its very core was a profound belief in our inherent ability to overcome fear through faith.
This is the Real Freedom available to us all.
Inspiring Message of the Day: Let me not confuse Faith with religion, which may cause me to reject its Power. Let me explore the idea of using Faith to overcome my deepest fears.
