Howard Thurman was an American author, theologian, and educator. Thurman’s theology of radical nonviolence influenced and shaped a generation of civil rights activists – he was a key mentor to leaders within the civil rights movement, including MLK, Jr. One of Thurman’s poems, The Work of Christmas, was turned into a hymn we sing a lot around here, I Am the Light of the World.
Thurman would tell us: No one escapes the storms and pressures of their own life. Each of us must deal with the difficult aspects of our life, with injustices inflicted upon us, and injustices which we wittingly or unwittingly inflict upon others.
The only hope for ending our internal conflict, the only possibility of stability for us in the middle of the storm, is to establish what Howard Thurman calls an “Island of Peace within one’s own soul.”
Thurman’s thesis is that deep within our soul is a holy of holies where God dwells – not the God of our society, our government, our church, or our family, but the God of our hearts.
What makes you come alive? It is there we find our true, authentic selves and come alive. So, what is it that makes you come alive? We’re going to be talking about that in 2023 at The Church of the Palms.
According to Howard Thurman, “the world…[I would add this church] needs people who have come alive.”
Shalom, Paul
What the church needs
