��I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.� 

I always loved this statement�originally seen in Jeremiah.  The words seem so poetic, so inviting to me.  They speak of a new relationship with God�one not of complex and constraining external rules and doctrines, but based in mutuality and love.  Can�t you hear it?  Listen again��I will be their God, and they shall be my people.� 

But, what does it mean that God has put God�s laws into my mind, written them in my heart?  God has written our relationship in my heart?  What does that mean for my day-to-day life?  How does it change the way I act? 

The inscriptions on my heart push me�prod me�constantly�to respond to injustice, to speak for the voiceless, to use my gifts to work for justice and peace.  When I say push, I mean PUSH�like a spark within my being, present from my early childhood.  That spark first ignited when I was nine�and had the audacity to argue with my father about the rights of black high school students in Little Rock, Arkansas.  From those days long past to today, I felt a profound sense of commitment and responsibility to those diminished and demeaned by others.  And, many are the moments when I have experienced the alienation and conflict of seeing as few others see�and wished I could pretend I didn�t see the injustice.  But, somehow�I could do no other.

And, yet the world continues�human inhumanity grows rather than diminishes.  Sometimes, I despair that we humans will ever hear God calling us to the greater good.  But somehow, I keep going�even though I know that I may make only a little difference, I cannot change the world.  Still, I keep going�as do others, much more important than I.

This week we celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.    I wonder about God�s inscriptions on his heart.  He was faithful to God�s calling�and, yet, he too knew the frustration of falling short.  In a sermon entitled, �Unfulfilled Dreams,� he had this to say, 

�The struggle is always there.  It gets discouraging sometimes.  It gets very disenchanting sometimes.  Some of us are trying to build a temple of peace.  We speak out against war, we protest, but it seems that your head is going against a concrete wall.  It seems to mean nothing.  And so often as you set out to build the temple of peace you are left lonesome; you are left discouraged; you are left bewildered.

Well, that is the story of life.  And the thing that makes me happy is that I can hear a voice crying through the vista of time, saying:  �It may not come today or it may not come tomorrow, but it is well that it is within thine heart.  It�s well that you are trying.�  You may not see it.  The dream may not be fulfilled, but it�s just good that you have a desire to bring it into reality.  It�s well that it�s in thine heart.

Thank God this morning that we do have hearts to put something meaningful in.�