If your social media feeds were anything like mine, they were filled with quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. Some of those quotes are really powerful and all of them are very true! I love seeing these quotes and would love it even more if we’d live by them instead of using them as mere advertisements.
But I do want to speak to those of you who quoted this man and threw his words all over the internet for one day out of the year. Do you live these words every other day? Do you actually believe the words King spoke? Do you think they are real?
I don’t think many of you do. I’m not trying to be negative or pessimistic or even judgmental. Just look at your feed last week or the week before. Did you fill your status on Facebook with how horrific the people were that went into the capital? Did you tweet about the man in the office on the other side of your political views as the enemy? Did you curse the other side for their violent and disturbing displays while defending those who did the same thing on your side of the aisle?
If you quote Martin Luther King, Jr. one day and throw stones at your neighbor the next you are part of the problem.
Friends we are not given the right to pick and choose what we wnat to believe and when we want to believe it. We need to be consistent. If you believe that Martin Luther King Jr. was a good man then quit spreading the well put together memes and start living the words on those memes. Quit dividing against your neighbor one day, only to shout how love conquers hate the next day.
If you really want to honor the legacy of men and women who have reformed our country into a better version of itself, then stop quoting them and start living how they lived. Be the difference maker don’t just say the words of a previous difference maker.
Look I get it! This isn’t the country you grew up in. There are ideologies around that don’t align with yours. There are people who live differently than you live. People aren’t always fair. Evil wins some days. And some people just flat suck at humanity. But get over yourself! When all you do is condemn the other person then lob these pithy statements from a really great man but don’t change how you see the world then you are the problem.
Stop with the quotes if you’re not going to live what the quote says! Just live the quote you want to display on your page. It will mean more and perhaps someone might actually be impacted because the words on your Facebook page won’t change anyone’s life if they don’t show up in your real life.
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