These three words are Maya Angelou’s and they have inspired this morning’s post. I don’t know about you but I search for wisdom. And as is evident in her three words, it does not take many. I don’t need a long or grand speech, just a couple of thought-filled and authentic words can release me from longer words that have bound me hand and foot.
I open books with an eager excitement and hope that courage will come, peace will be found, assurance will be given. I look for good words that might guide me to a higher place, to a better part of me. And the need is fresh every morning. I am hungry for words, driven to write them and read them every day.
Likewise, I don’t like fearful words, ill- informed words, hate- filled words. They do nothing for me but work against me. Now, when persons ask me about race and reconciliation, forgiveness and justice, oppression and privilege, when they question how we can solve the race problem, I have three words for them: “Just do right.”
The Raceless Gospel 
Beautiful message and video Starlette.
Here’s where the ‘Just do right’ gets interesting:
“How does integrity face oppression?
What does honesty do in the face of deception?
What does decency do in the face of insult?
And how does virtue meet brute force.”
-Cornell West quoting W. E. B. Du Bois, seen on Democracy Now’s interview with Dr. West “Black Prophetic Fire: Cornel West on the Revolutionary Legacy of Leading African-American Voices” Monday, October 6, 2014
Interesting, huh? Well, I’ll see your DuBois and raise you a Dr. King (laughing aloud). Here’s an excerpt from King’s book Stride Toward Freedom. It is from the chapter titled “An Experiment in Love”:
“In speaking of love at this point, we are not referring to some sentimental or affectionate emotion. It would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive good will. When we speak of loving those who oppose us, we refer to neither eros or philia; we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word agape. Agape means understanding, redeeming good will for all men. It is an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless and creative. It is not set in motion by any quality or function of its object. It is the love of God operating in the human heart.
Agape is disinterested love. It is a love in which the individual seeks not his own good but the good of his neighbor (1 Cor. 10.24). Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people or any qualities people possess. It begins by loving others for their sakes. …” (King, 19)
We must “just do right,” Glenn.
What a simple but beneficial post. It is nudges us to pursue our best with God.
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