Everybody Can Serve

If you want to be important—wonderful.
If you want to be recognized—wonderful.
If you want to be great—wonderful.
But recognize that he who is greatest
among you shall be your servant.

That’s a new definition of greatness.
And this morning, the thing that I like about it:
by giving that definition of greatness,
it means that everybody can be great,
because everybody can serve.

You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.
You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve.
You don’t have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve.
You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

And you can be that servant.

(excerpt from his last sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct,” delivered on February 4, 1968. Text copyright © The King Center)

I celebrate with all people today the memory, work, and spirit of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).

We are today the benefactors of his immense courage and vision: he made us all look within and reach in to that higher love, that deeper love, that radical love. In the face of injustice and brutality, he asked for justice and civility. In the face of violence and death, he asked the survivors and the victims’ families—in the heat of their anguish—to not hate their oppressors.

He said out loud what we all want to say, but often don’t. He did out loud what we all want to do, but often won’t.

And if his bodhisattva spirit were to hover near you today and whisper in your ear some words of inspiration, what do you think he would say? Can you hear him? Lean forward and listen close now: what do you hear?

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 12:36 am and is filed under Misc. Find similar posts by selecting any of the following tags: bodhisattva, courage, service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.