“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today was a day to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  and it was a day dedicated to empowering individuals and strengthening communities, a day meant to build bridges and create solutions for social problems. As I thought about the purpose of what today was meant to be I can’t help but think that what we really is an entire year dedicated to those things, not just a day!

We live in a time where we need more voices like that of Dr. King advocating for people to work together to solve problems. We need more voices that talk of treating one another with dignity and respect, regardless of the differences of opinion that may exist. We need more people who remind everyone that the best way to overcome our differences is to come together in the service of others. That’s the way to unite people together – to lose ourselves in the service of others. That’s the message we need to be sharing…

When we serve others, working side by side to do so – different viewpoints become unimportant, egos take a back seat, titles and position no longer matter.  The attention turns to helping the people we are serving. The focus becomes what we are doing for others.  And that leads us to want to engage more people to work alongside us to do the same…

As Dr. King stated, the most persistent and urgent question we ought to be asking ourselves and others is– “What are we doing for others?”  Because when we are each able to answer that question with an answer that we know would make God proud, well, that is where we will all find true happiness.

~Amy Rees Anderson