Passionate or
Passive, How is your Life’s Message?
August 28, 2013
marked the 50th anniversary of a speech destined to change a
nation. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” discourse was
being shaped a few days prior to the event by a group of trusted friends,
including Dr. Clarence Benjamin (Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech
That Transformed a Nation). Benjamin suggested the idea of a transaction
in a bank. “We’re coming here after the Emancipation Proclamation after
all this time, to redeem a note from the signers of the Declaration of
Independence.” With the weight of the civil rights movement on his
shoulders, Dr. King started methodically to deliver his message using this
carefully crafted language. From the crowd, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
shouted out, “Tell ‘em about the dream, Martin. Tell ‘em about the
dream.” Benjamin writes, “I saw him take the written text and hold it to
the left side and look out at the more than 250,000 people. Seeing
this, I said to somebody, ‘These people don’t know it, but they’re ready to go
to church.’” Benjamin continues, “It was as if some cosmic force had come
down…it was not so much the profoundness of the content. It was the
way he delivered it with such extraordinary passion.”
Passion. It reached into the souls of the crowd that day, ignited a dream
and changed a nation. Passion and dreams often walk hand in
hand. Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Are you still
dreaming? As a missionary, how is your life’s passion quota?
Passionate or passive? “I now remind you to stir up that inner fire
which God gave you at your ordination.” Timothy 1:6 J.B. Phillips.
God has big dreams yet to be fulfilled. Stay broken in His
Presence and He will increased your passion quota.
