Today, is a federal holiday in our nation marking the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the great American civil rights leader. On August 28, 1963 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. he delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. Here are a few excerpts. 

“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood… I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama… little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today…

And when this happens, and when we allow freedom to ring… we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

“There is neither Jew nor Greek; neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus… It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” (Galatians 3:28, 5:1 CEB).

Rev. King’s American dream is God’s dream too. As followers of Jesus Christ, it is to be our dream and mission as well. May our thoughts, words, and actions always show that it is so!

Your partner on the journey,

Pastor Steve