With Love at the Center

Dearly Loved Community of UUCG,

It’s hard to pick a “favorite” quotation from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but surely at the very top of the list for me is the one where he spells out the relationship among power, justice, and love:

“What is needed,” Dr. King writes in Where Do We Go from Here?, “is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” 

Just look at how love is at the center of Dr. King’s vision for a just and equitable world! It is the active force here. It’s love that “implements” and love that “corrects” because, to weave in more of Dr. King’s words, it is Love that wraps us all “in an inescapable network of mutuality,” Love that ties us together “in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”

Love, Equity, Interdependence – these core values of our Unitarian Universalist faith are all there in Dr. King’s words. We UUs are considering boldly naming and claiming these values and how they relate to each other in the revisions to Article II in our faith’s by-laws, which is one of the places we define who we are. In this week of celebrating Dr. King’s birthday, these quotes remind us that we draw on the vision and understanding of ordinary-extraordinary people as deep inspiration for how we are to live and be in our daily lives, as well as in times of crucial choices or crisis.

So, beloveds, how will you implement love this week?

• When you put Love at the center of your being, how does this change how you interact with family, friends, and strangers, even with that annoying co-worker or demanding teacher, even on a cold and grumpy day?
• When you look at the many places where people and creatures are suffering, how will you use what power you have, fueled by love and united with others, to create more equitable and compassionate conditions?

There really aren’t any “small” choices about how we are to live, are there? How we choose to be, what we choose to do—they are all so finely woven into this beautiful, complex web that holds us and all that is. If I pull on this “strand” in the web today with my words or deeds—the web’s going to rock and roll; it’s going to be changed.

Here’s what I want to say: You matter! We matter! And every day we get a new chance to live and move with Love. Hallelujah!

And that, my darlings, is exactly why I’m signing these notes:

With Love at the center,
Rev. Nancy