Words Are Powerful

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ends his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech with the following words:

“When we let freedom ring…from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, 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!"

I like to play this clip for my students each year so that they can hear Dr. King’s voice and see part of an historic American speech…and because “Free At Last” is one of the songs that my textbook writers included for study.

While I’ve always thought it neat that we could listen to Dr. King’s words and then immediately sing the song that he was referencing, I didn’t fully grasp the profundity of it until this year.

Sometime during my second day of teaching the lesson, while looking around the room at my students, I realized that we were doing exactly what Dr. King had dreamed. No. We weren’t literally holding hands and singing in a large human chain, but our hands were joined in following music from the same textbooks, under the same roof, at the same school, and our hands were all different shades of human.

One of my students asked me what Martin Luther King, Jr., did to earn a holiday if he wasn’t a president and how he changed the world if he didn’t use guns or violence. I said, “He used his words.”

Words are powerful.

While recovering from a recent bout with a stomach virus, I stumbled upon a somewhat dramatic episode of “Touched By An Angel.” In the episode, Gus, a down-on-his-luck insurance salesman, sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the commission on an insurance policy that would provide enough money for him to care for his ailing wife. Monica, an angel, was very concerned about Gus’s actions and consulted Tess, the head angel, about what to do—because she felt that all she had to offer was words. Tess responded, “That’s what it’s all about, baby. Words. And we’ve got to shine the light on them so Gus can see what they really are. What they can do. Before it’s too late.”

When Monica went to talk to Gus and Gus confessed his belief that the contract for his soul was just words, Monica pleaded: “Don’t you understand? In the beginning was the Word. Words started everything. You know, it doesn’t matter if you speak your words to [your wife] or the devil or the child on the street. Words have meaning. You say them and you give them life. And whether you speak them into the air or write them down on a piece of paper your words mean as much as the oath you took on your wedding day, binding your soul to [your wife] forever. With God as your witness.” Eventually, Gus chose to sing the words to “This Little Light of Mine” and the devil and her contract faded away and all was well.

Words.
Fact or fiction.
Written or spoken.
Past or present.
Words hold power.
Words change lives.
And love does, too.

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it. –Martin Luther King, Jr.

May we use our words to
change lives in love
today and all the days to come.
Amen.