In a season of reflection on the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, there is a stark image presented by the man himself while speaking to students at Glenville High School in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 31, 1968: five days before he was assassinated.

Dr. King relates the story of riding the school bus in the age of segregation, having to sit in the back of the bus, white children sitting in the front. Remember that you put your mind in the front seat and promised yourself that your body would be there one day.

That is a passion that is not tied to the circumstances that were presented to you. He crystallized this following concept in his being:

No army can resist force
of an idea whose time has come “.

– Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Dr. King declined to be identified as less than someone else. It demonstrates the possibility that we, in our minds, can transcend the environments in which we find ourselves. The mind is unimaginably powerful; invincible when inhabited by the drive of integrity and virtue.

When our mind insists on being sustained by a vision, no matter how lofty it is, the heart becomes animated. And when the heart is encouraged, faith, as a process, is inevitable. When faith walks forward with feet adorned with the shoes of courage, it is the forerunner of an anointed destiny.

If we live a life that is filled to the brim to overflowing, we do not resent it. Bitterness only rejects a hope that could otherwise be chosen. If pressures fill our lives, we must live as if change will inevitably come. If it is loneliness, we trust that it will not always be this way. If it is pain, we know that the sun must rise on some horizon soon. Confusion and chaos may be our current location, but satisfaction amid such noise assures us of a peaceful destination.

Contentment begins in the mind determined to choose hope over the mirage of despair.