Two Frameworks for How we Should Remember Dr. King: A Call to Reflection and Refraction

As the world remembers the life and legacy of Dr. King today, my simple prayer is that we would all deeply feel the “fierce urgency of now” in our spirits and souls, the divine urgency, which compels each of us to serve in our local communities and to speak out against the imbalances of power and injustice of our day. I wanted to take some time today and talk about “how to remember” Dr. King, not so much with emphasis on his accomplishments in life but more so upon his legacy in death. With nearly every urban area in America naming streets, schools, and community centers after him, some might suggest that King’s dream has become a reality. In my humble opinion, I believe Dr. King would want to be remembered not only for the right reasons but in the right way. I believe there are two essential frameworks, “reflection” and “refraction” that we need to embrace simultaneously in order to properly appreciate Dr. King’s legacy. Each framework is individually important, but without being conjoined with the other, if left independently, they can easily be reduced to an amoral and non-constructive response and in the worst case even immoral and destructive response. For this reason, I want to take a patient approach in explaining these two frameworks as we seek to remember Dr. King in a skillful way. I invite you to engage my thoughts carefully and prayerfully as you read along in consideration.

To begin, I assert that remembering is a skill and some do it better than others. Skills differ from gifts in that skills are are acquired and cultivated through practice while gifts are inherit abilities given to us by God. We must humbly admit that we have not always skillfully remembered those who have gone before us. Either we have remembered the method more than the message, such as Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary” ethos, or we have unskillfully remembered the message and forgotten the man, such as with our Lord Jesus, whom today has millions of people quoting his words, yet disconnected from a relationship with Him. Going further, sometimes we even forget the method, message and motive, remembering only the man, such as the case with Louis Farrakhan, who has such an outspoken demeanor, most people get lost in his eccentric ways rather than actually listen to anything he says or does. So again, I believe that the skill of remembering well, boils down to our acceptance of two critical frameworks, namely “reflection” and “refraction”. Each framework is valuable in their respective ways, but my aim is to show their interdependence upon each other. We often do well to reflect on great men and women but how often do we refract? In scientific terms the difference between reflection and refraction is this: in reflection, energy waves bounce off the surface of an object without absorbing the heat or light energy. On the contrary, in refraction, the waves pass through and are absorbed through the surface and change their speed and direction. Reflection and refraction can be understood as the difference between a glass mirror, which reflects the light and a glass lens which has the capacity to absorb and intensify the light. It is the difference between staring at an image and harnessing the power to cook an egg on the sidewalk. (Texas people understand)

As it relates to Dr. King, I believe it is important to both reflect and refract on his legacy. When we have reflection without refraction we can potentially create a type of narcissistic nostalgia of the soul, the often undetected type of self-righteousness that comes through a vicarious association with someone like Dr. King, who we will admire for doing with his life what we all ought to do with ours. However, if we have refraction without reflection, we run the risk of imitating those whom we admire, yet unaware of the need for the contextualization of their methods. It is the difference between hanging a poster of Michael Jordan on your wall and getting up at 5am to practice free throws. Reflecting without refracting is how in a nation like America, we will claim Dr. King as one of the great products of American exceptionalism, yet be unwilling to admit that it wasn’t the promise or prosperity of America that produced the prophetic voice of King, but it was in reality, the moral bankruptcy and legalized injustices of America that did so. Conversely, refracting without reflecting is how many young people today can take to the streets in protest, but seriously lack the soul power, personal investment and sacrifice of our predecessors, yet expect the same results. So we need both reflection and refraction as we seek to remember skillfully.

On days like today the internet is filled with memes, quotes, and memories of the iconic Dr. King as we reflect, but I wonder about tomorrow, when the schools and banks re-open and the holiday has passed, what then? We can easily take the words of great leaders such as Dr. King and post them online and internalize them through reflection, but quickly forget that there is also a call to externalize them with our actions. This type of unskillful remembering is what I believe, in part at least, has caused the hollowness of soul and inability to endure hardships that many aspiring leaders of our present generation suffer from. We have opted to carefully think about and reflect the light without absorbing the heat. As we refract on King, and absorb the energy of his prophetic words into our souls, in doing so, we skillfully remember him as an example not only for our future forward but as a beautiful and inspirational memorial stone of our past. My call to those reading this is to both reflect and to refract on Dr. King. We must absorb the divine energy of God at work in his life as a glass lens does in refraction and then through reflection, cherish the memory of his faith, his hope and his love. This type of divine fire, whether it comes from Dr. King, our parents, our Pastors, or some other human figure, should always be skillfully remembered. We must also keep in mind that it is God alone, from whom all holy and divine power comes from. God’s fire as seen in the life of Dr. King was born of the Holy spirit and can be the same type of fuel in our lives for compassion and strength. In skillful remembrance of Dr. King, we acknowledge that it is also God’s divine fire that gives us the power to resist the always present voice of doubt, which often whispers to those who are making a difference in this world, that voice that whispers lies and deception to your hearts, telling you to “quit, because you’re wasting your time”. If you’ve ever heard that voice like I have, then we need to both draw strength by reflecting on the message of King , but to also take responsibility for the message by refracting on King.

If you haven’t understood yet how to skillfully remember Dr. King by reflecting and refracting his message and life, let me give you a word of encouragement, that it is only by God’s grace. The reflection part comes naturally for most people and is very simple in the conceptual sense, meaning it is easy to understand with our mind, but the challenge of refracting (absorbing the message) is only discovered in sacrificial living. In reflection we remember and are inspired by another’s sacrifice, in refraction we externalize the cause as we are empowered to lay our lives down as well. Dr. King once said “a man hasn’t really lived until he’s found something he’s willing to die for”. To reflect is to appreciate Dr. Kings mobilization efforts, to refract is to own the responsibility of organizing our own local communities as well. In biblical terms, to reflect, is to simply hear the word, but to refract is to be a doer of the word and that takes God’s grace. Dr. King is remembered mostly as a civil rights activist, a Nobel peace prize winner, but he rarely gets credit as a theologian. While many have sought to discredit his life and legacy, what I believe truly caused Dr. King to impact the world in such ways was his commitment to the teachings of Christ in scripture. His impetus for believing in a world of peace was not blind optimism, but robust theology. His challenge to be non-violent resistors to oppression, was not weak-minded fear, it was Christ teachings, from the sermon on the mount. All of King’s efforts stemmed from a deep personal relationship with God and a theological foundation. King was a Pastor before he was an activist. He did not study law, political science, or economics, he earned his PhD in theology. As we remember him today, never lose sight of the role that God’s word and God’s dream had on King’s words and King’s dreams.

In conclusion, on this day of remembrance for all who love justice and believe in a better world, let’s not only reflect on powerful history of yesterday, but let’s also refract on those lessons to build a tomorrow for our children. Let’s role up our sleeves and get our hands dirty and let’s embrace our invitation from Christ to be wounded healers, fully aware that our hearts will be broken even as we seek to restore others. America these days is stumbling in the darkness of an uncertain future, in a time where morality is subjective and politicized and all the while, we still grapple with what Dr. King called the 3 triplets of evil “racism, materialism, and militarism”. In times like these, courageous men and women are needed on the front lines of conflict. While an effort to construct a border wall at our southern border rages on, while black and brown people are still disproportionately affected by the criminal injustice system and the for-profit, privatized prison system, while deals are being brokered behind closed doors with judges and politicians, while wage, education, and gender gaps of opportunity still exist in virtually every sphere of our society and while a long list of other battles remain to be won, my prayer is that we always skillfully remember through reflecting and refracting not only Dr. King’s words of inspiration but follow his example of a life well lived, poured out for God’s glory and in service to humanity. I leave you with these powerful words from Dr. King… “Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” Happy MKL JR. DAY

– Brian M. Williams, January 21, 2019