On MLK Day, 2012
As I sit in a coffee shop reading Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, I am touched (as I am every year) by the way Dr. King turned a phrase, by the visual images in my head, and by the depth and breadth of this call to action.
My favorite word from the piece this year is “somebodyness.” Dr. King writes:
One is a force of complacency made up of Negroes who, as a result of long years of oppression, have been so completely drained of self-respect and a sense of “somebodyness” that they have adjusted to segregation, and, on the other hand, of a few Negroes in the middle class who, because of a degree of academic and economic security and because at points they profit by segregation, have unconsciously become insensitive to the problems of the masses.
And my prayer for today goes like this:
For every time I have forgotten my own “somebodyness,” Loving God, thank you for reminding me that I am somebody. You sent someone or something to remind me of it, and I am grateful.
For every time I have robbed someone of their “somebodyness,” Forgiving God, I ask for your grace and forgiveness. I hope that someone has reminded that somebody of their “somebodyness.”
And may I, Gracious God, be granted the opportunity to recognize and affirm someone’s “somebodyness” today and everyday. Open me the eyes those opportunities and the courage to speak for another’s “somebodyness.”