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The Wisdom of Children: Hope for the Future

“I have a dream.” The influence of these words by Martin Luther King, Jr was on full display Thursday night, January 15, at the 10th annual MLK Oratory Competition held at the George Washington Carver Museum. The room buzzed with excitement as it filled with parents and community members brimming with hope and expectation of what the young writers were going to say. The crowd slowly inched into the room with a dissipating hope of actually finding a seat. With standing room only, seventeen elementary school students, from different parts of Austin, competed in the competition as part of the annual MLK celebration presented by the Austin Area Heritage Council. In a five-minute speech, each speaker was to answer the question, “What message of hope do you think Dr. King would have for the world today?”

It was apparent that these young people had studied and reflected on the life of Martin Luther King in a deep and meaningful way. With this preparation, the competitors were able to begin imagining what Dr. King’s message of hope for the world today might be. As these young students delivered their well-crafted speeches, it was incredible to watch them connect the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. to our contemporary culture and society. One theme that surfaced in many of the speeches centered on Dr. King’s quote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The wisdom these young speakers gleaned from Dr. King, which they shared in their speeches, is fitting today given the polarized nature of our nation. Their wisdom stands in contrast to our contemporary wisdom, which suggests that we rely on our ability to tear down, discredit, and dismiss others because they do not share our opinions or views. Time and time again, these young speakers urged the audience to be the light and love the world needs rather than continuing to participate in our polarized discourses.
The message these young speakers shared struck me, particularly as a parent. It is easy to forget the hope my children represent, when they don’t clean their rooms or take out the trash. However, the messages I heard on Thursday night brought this reality back into focus. I was reminded of Saint Paul’s words in his letter to the Corinthians, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways (NRSV).” As Christians, we are called to mature into our full stature, as members of the body of Christ leaving behind our prideful, self-indulgent insistence to be right at the expense of others. This type of maturing does not simply happen because we grow older; it requires that we spend time reflecting on the life and message of Jesus, as well as the lives and work of others who have come before us. On Thursday night, these seventeen young speakers all demonstrated this reality. By studying Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and work, each of these students gained, in some part, the maturity about which Saint Paul is speaking. These mature young children called each of us to put an end to our childish ways of understanding the world as a battlefield and those in it as our enemy. Instead, these young people offered us a vision for the future centered on love – a future in which we are wise enough to understand and courageous enough to believe that “love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
As we celebrate the life Martin Luther King this year, let us not forget the transformational power of love. Let’s follow the example of these seventeen outstanding young people. Let’s put an end to our childish ways and begin to live into the vision of Martin Luther King and these young speakers. Let’s live into a vision pointed toward a future in which our actions and relationships participate in the love of God in such a way that our lives, the lives of our communities, and the life of the world grows and matures “until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

The Reverend Ashley Freeman is a senior in the Master of Divinity program at Seminary of the Southwest.  Ashley, his wife Annie, and their three children come to the seminary from the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast.

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