In March of 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the walk from Selma to Montgomery. It was a peaceful demand for the freedom to vote, to have access to an education, and to pave the way towards equal participation in the American dream. Though African Americans led this march, it was based on the principals of love, rooted in a biblical foundation, and applicable to every American. It was a protest against the inhuman treatment of a person based on the color of their skin. Many white Americans marched alongside Black Americans during one of the most pivotal times in America’s history.
Today, possibilities abound to achieve our dreams, as evidenced by the fact we can choose our own “suit.” We wear what we want, eat where we choose, and yet we are in chains that hold us captive to ideals that are not our own — ideas that place limits on our God-given freedoms as humans and as Americans
Regardless of our color, our history, or our faith, we have capitulated to a narrative of division that I believe is scripted by others. This division is not who we are as a country founded upon Christian values. We are not perfect, but we are, nonetheless, favored by God Almighty.
This reality represents a regression for America as a whole. It supersedes our nationality, our pigmentation, and our faith. Crime, abortion, cultural manipulation, political bondage, and in many ways, a continued systemic inequality based on a person’s color and not their character have all contributed to this slide. How much longer will we as Americans continue to be willfully ignorant of the facts?
The facts of history stand on their own. Current events confirm what is still not working. Are we moving towards making America a place where God lives and thrives? If we’re honest — because we can and should be — in many ways, we are making progress, but there is more to be done. Those last steps will only come with sacrifice. What sacrifice? Our chains.
Every single American has a chain they wrestle with. Whether drugs, materialism, addiction, immoral lifestyle, financial struggle, or just being a part of the only race that exists: the human race. A chain is a chain and no chain is more beautiful than the other. Yet we persist in acts of prejudice as if our chain somehow is better.
As a nation, we must remind ourselves of why Black and White Americans walked from Selma to Montgomery. We have forgotten what brought us together during this time of deep divide, violence, and even murder.
As a poet and creative artist, I am moved to express these issues in a walk from Montgomery back to Selma … in a suit … with chains on my feet and hands.
Words today are vain without action. We must provoke deeper thinking, honest and earnest conversations that touch the calloused heart of each of us. King said, “When you are right, you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”
I am moved to share my expression of these thoughts that run through my mind and heart. I do so through poetry in written and spoken word, but also through action — this walk in chains.
A walk during the Thanksgiving season is relevant to me because though we are thankful, we are not thankful enough as Americans. Our thanksgiving has become shallow because it fails to match the level of blessings we have received from God. To whom much is given, much is also expected. We kill millions of Turkeys, eat tons of food and yet we are deeply divided within ourselves and with each other.
We are divided in the sense that we have ignored the need of what King called, “A restructuring of our values.”
Above all, Jesus has commanded us to love one another, even to love our enemies. To forgive lest we not be forgiven. To give to our enemy our coat, and to go two miles if asked to go one. The Word declares we must go to our brother if we are offended. Confrontation is life, and Kanye West is right; Jesus is KING!
We must be radical with our love in yielding to a righteous conviction because I believe that at the slightest rift, we could witness a national crisis of such division that violence could tear our country apart. I fear we are “one more” act away from an eruption of chaos in our streets. Only love can arrest this. When you see the behavior of today’s politicians it speaks of the low moral standard that we have within leadership. Lying has become the norm, and extreme levels of deception are at work to divide our country even more.
My walk from Montgomery to Selma during this season of Thanksgiving is to provoke us to go deeper.
May we take this Thanksgiving deeper than just the food we eat
And the same people we eat with
The games we watch during that day, the movies that entertain at night.
We must connect with those we don’t know
Say hello to a neighbor we haven’t greeted in months
A stranger who is in need of something to eat
Find that genuine part of you and command the chains that hold you back to let you go
That your heart might flow with love again to every woman and man as it did days before
We are the solution for America
Not a politician or a party
We are America
We will not be an empty suit with chains that bound our hearts
Let us love and be loved
For it is through this we will destroy this deepening divide
For those who refuse
In the end, they will lose
They agitate us for this very reason
They through vice have committed treason
They hid behind the system
We the people are stronger than they
We have the God-given right to have them replaced
By selecting God-fearing leaders of our day
Through repentance to God for our self-righteousness
Against Him and one another
The chains will dissolve
We shall come together
And love each other
In suits that are new
Pray for me as I retrace the steps of both Black and White Americans from Montgomery to Selma. Reflect on what you can do to take radical action for truth. Then the chains will fall from our hands and feet, but also our minds. Our suits will be renewed with vibrant colors as they reflect just how free we are to love, to live, and to lift each other up with the grace we ourselves have received from God.
It is time for a resurgence to faith, to love, to God, and to one another.
William Owens is an author of 15 books on Christian life and maturity. His latest book is about his 1,014 bike journey called, "Astonished – Inviting God to experience you through your journey of faith." Other books include two books of poetry "Naked Before God" and "Poems for America." His best seller is "Bastards in the Pulpit." He travels full time in his RV throughout America as a minister and poet speaking truth to power through the creative arts. He is founder of The Coalition of American Believers and has launched a new book project called Poets for America where other poets will share their poems of hope, love and unity. www.poetsforamerica.com | www.americaspoet.com
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