In life, many of us live afraid of a physical death, or of something "bad" happening to us. We live afraid of persecution, afraid of death, afraid of outside circumstances hindering us, or of robbers or murderers. Yet, these are not the threats we should most fear, we should fear as Victor Hugo once said, what hinders the soul, whatever it is, whatever leaves us disempowered from standing for our beliefs and letting our glorious God given light shine. I would like to throw the following quote by Martin Luther King out there.
“You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some
great opportunity stands before you and calls you to stand up for some
great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to
do it because you are afraid…. You refuse to do it because you want to
live longer…. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are
afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your
popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at
you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.
Well,
you may go on and live until you are 90, but you’re just as dead at 38
as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is
but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.”
- Marin Luther King Jr.
I wanted to share this as a reminder to all, the true tragedy, the true horror, is not the persecution that comes with standing for who you are, but allowing that fear to paralyze you. The true tragedy is not in the death of the living, but the living of the already dead.
