Short Stories, Long Odds

From Martin Luther King’s sermon “Unfulfilled Dreams”

Some weeks ago somebody was saying something to me about a person that I have great, magnificent respect for. And they were trying to say something that didn’t sound too good about his character, something he was doing. And I said, “Number one, I don’t believe it. But number two, even if he is, he’s a good man because his heart is right.” And in the final analysis, God isn’t going to judge him by that little separate mistake that he’s making, because the bent of his life is right.

He may not have reached the highest height… He may not have realized all of his dreams, but he tried. Isn’t that a wonderful thing for somebody to say about you? “He tried to be a good man. He tried to be a just man. He tried to be an honest man. His heart was in the right place.” And I can hear a voice saying, crying out through the eternities, “I accept you. You are the recipient of my grace because it was in your heart. And it is so well that it was within thine heart.”

I don’t know this morning about you, but I can make a testimony. You don’t need to go out this morning saying that Martin Luther King is a saint. Oh, no. I want you to know this morning that I’m a sinner like all of God’s children. But I want to be a good man! And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, “I take you in and I bless you, because you try.”