Travel PlansOn the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday a Facebook friend issued a challenge to honor Dr. King by doing three things if you made the decision to not go out in the cold and serve. The tasks were to: (1) read, (2) write and (3) reflect. It was already in my plan to write and read, but I was challenged with reflect.  In my friend’s Periscope he said, “Go check out a YouTube of a MLK speech and go beyond the ‘I Have A Dream’ speech.”  He said, “Dr. King said more than that!” That was actually the second post I saw that morning that emphasized looking at Dr. King in his totality. Another friend shared that he was thankful to have taken a class on King’s rhetoric which reintroduced him to the prophet King and challenged the mainstreamed and sanitized version of this irreplaceable freedom fighter. So this lead me to YouTube and the first speech I chose to listen to was “What Is Your Life’s Blueprint?”

This was an address to a junior high school class in Philadelphia but after listening, this message applies to us all because every day is a new day to begin again, better than the day before if you have the right blueprint. As I listened, I realized I was familiar with several of the quotes from the speech, but I simply don’t hear people talk about it like “I Have A Dream!” or “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop!” I listened to some other speeches on Monday but I want to share some key points from “What Is in Your Life’s Blueprint” that will help you turn it up a notch and keep moving for Jesus.

When a building is constructed, an architect usually draws a blueprint which serves as the pattern, the guide, or the model for those who are to construct the building. A building is not well erected without a good, sound and solid blueprint. We are in the process of building the structure of our lives. Do you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint? Here are some of the things that should be in your life’s blueprint:

  1. A deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth and your own “somebodiness”. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you are nobody. Always feel that you count, always feel that you have worth and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.
  2.  A basic principle of determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavors. Whatever you set out to do, do it well. Be ready to enter the doors of opportunity as they are presented to you. Do your job so well that the living, dead or unborn couldn’t do it any better. Be the best of whatever you are!
  3. A commitment to the eternal principles of beauty, love, and justice. Don’t allow anyone to pull you so low as to make you hate them. Don’t allow anyone to cause you to lose your self-respect to the point that you don’t struggle for justice. Regardless of your age, you have a responsibility to seek to make your nation a better nation in which to live; to make life better for everybody. You must be involved in the struggle for freedom and justice.

Dr. King closed the speech with Langston Hughes’ Mother to Son which popularly begins with “life ain’t been no crystal stair”. The mother kept on moving and she told her son not to sit down on the steps but to keep climbing.  Dr. King ended by saying that life for none us has been a crystal stair, but we must keep moving, we must keep going. “If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl but by all means keep on moving”.

If your life’s blueprint is proper, sound and solid, you will be able to keep on moving. In order to keep moving, your faith walk must be strong. A strong faith walk requires that you turn it up a notch and intensify your spiritual disciplines. There must be much time in prayer, but prayer alone will not cut it. You must fast as well as pray. I have some awesome FB friends. Someone else posted a picture from her Pastor that said, “Fasting without prayer is just another diet. I’m not trying to fit into my clothes. I’m trying to fit into my purpose!”

If you are trying to fit into your purpose, you will have to spend more time in the Word, meditating both night and day so that you will know the plans that the Lord has for you; so that you can see the direction that the Lord wants you to go. When the Lord says, “Move!” be ready to take off running! Run toward the destination that Jesus has for you. The path will not become clear until you are in motion. As you travel down the road, you will need to spend some time alone in Silence – listening for the voice of the Lord. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s voice today as you seek to obey God’s word. He will reveal God’s purposes in your life and direct your steps clearly in God’s time.

The Lord may only speak today in a still, small voice and you need to be able to hear. You need to be able to hear so you can take the next step and turn it up a notch and keep moving for Jesus. Our individual purposes should line up with the Kingdom purpose because only what we do for Christ will last. As I turn it up a notch, I set an example for others to follow. Are you ready to turn it up a notch for the Lord?  If not, re-examine your blueprint.

Leave a Reply