To Live or Die For

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 and died on April 4, 1968. He was a clergyman, activist and prominent leader in the African-American civil rights movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights and has become a human rights icon.

He delivered a speech in 1963 in Washington, D.C. titled, “I Have a Dream” and in 1964 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on ending racial segregation and racial discrimination by using civil disobedience and other non-violent methods.

Today, we remember Martin Luther King, Jr.’s contribution to our country with marches, speeches and re-enactments of the “I Had a Dream” speech. I looked up some of his more popular quotes and I came across this one: “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. died for what he believed in and I don’t believe he would have done anything differently had he known his life would have ended the way it did because of what he stood for.

The question we should all ask ourselves is whether we’ve found something worth standing for and giving our very lives for. Have you?

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (Jn. 15:13) Martin Luther King, Jr. was a civil rights leader that worked to end segregation and discrimination, but Jesus came to set the captives free and gave His life willingly on the cross as the ultimate show of God’s love for all mankind.

What or Whom do you live for? Or die for?


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