Be Careful of Your Next Adjustment

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired me with his stand for peace, his witness for justice and his commitment to non-violence.  I must admit that one of my favorite quotes of his was this one,

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

We live in need of constant adjustments.  Our eyes adjust from darkness to light.  Our feet adjust to different surfaces as our bodies encounter them.  We adjust what we wear according to the weather.

For me as a Christian this is the time of year when we really focus in on salvation.  The celebration of Christmas is all about God's creative act in sending Jesus to earth to live, to minister and to die. 

But an urgent call I got recently reminded me that the work of salvation is undone until everyone is free to live fully.  A counselor called from one of our locally run groups for the developmentally disabled.  She called to see if there was anything some of the developmentally disabled adults could volunteer to work on in my church.

Before I could answer her she said she had called more than twenty churches asking whether or not there was something in those churches the volunteers she works with could do.  She encountered one, "no" after another. 

It seems that even in this special time of the year there are still some hearts that are frozen cold.  Have we done what we could to reach out the those who are physically or mentally less abled?

Have we sought salvation not just for ourselves but also for those who are still discrimated against, even today?  Dr. King's word rings out in my mind again.  We are called to be 'creatively maladjusted.'

Let's not adjust to injustice, to malice and meanness, to hurt and heartache.  Let's make this a season where we creatively reach out to the ones in our midst who deserve our attention, our care and our involvement.