If we can't stand up for something how can we expect it to change? Religious strength sometimes gives us the power to do things we wouldn't otherwise be able to do.
I sometimes wonder if I’d have the strength and energy to stand up for what I believe in when everyone around me thought the opposite. Being strong isn’t about shouting your mouth off or being louder than the person next to you; it’s about being unmoved in your principles even when everything tells you to give in and follow everyone else.
There are plenty of good role models around if we look hard enough but they are often drowned out in the media by those people with louder voices and weaker messages, yet it is their opinions the rest of us are fighting against.
When it comes to someone like Martin Luther King, I wonder where he got the strength and energy from to keep on protesting against racism. Wouldn’t it have been much easier if he’d sat back and quietly spoken to other black people about the social injustices rather than stand up and do things so publicly? Some reports say that when he met his premature death, his heart was the age of a sixty-year old. Doesn’t that tell us how much extra stress and pressure he was under?
Yet because of the actions of one man (as he led those around him), great things can happen. Because one person stands up to be counted, others follow. And now the world is a much better and fairer place.
If nothing else this story gives me inspiration to keep my principles and make a difference. If I can’t do then why should I expect others to do anything?
