Martin Luther King Jr., spoke these words, “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never be a reality. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

I contemplate what I believe as strongly as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed? To Dr. King, these were not just words. He took these words and lived his life as them. He didn’t fight for this belief; he expressed it in his actions, as he refused to return the violence that was afflicted upon him and his people. He truly believed that Peace was the way.

There is a quote by the healer and mystic and teacher, Emma Curtis Hopkins, “The life force that stirs you is the God of you. The activities you demonstrate are Divinely ap­pointed.” 

It is obvious to me that the Life Force that moved Dr. King was the God of him, that the activities that he demonstrated were Divinely appointed. He lived his life to express love, not hatred. He was willing to give his life for what he called unarmed Truth. What is unarmed Truth? As I contemplate that phrase, I feel that Truth doesn’t need armor. It simply is Truth. What is this Truth that doesn’t need to be armed? It is pure love, the kind that just is, not relegated by anything outside itself. It is God.

Dr. King also stated this, “As my sufferings mounted, I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation – either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.”

As I contemplate this, I realize that all those who have given so much to this world did the same thing. They turned suffering into a creative force – a movement of energy in the opposite direction of how it was coming at them. Like a martial artist, they let it pass through them, allowing the force of the opposer simply fall by his own weight. They, instead, were free because they knew that they were at choice in how they would respond to the situation.

Reading about Martin Luther King, Jr. and contemplating all of this is not enough. The question I ask today is what am I going to do with it? If the Life Force that stirs me is the God of me and if Love is the only thing that can drive out hatred, then how do I apply this to my own life?

Simply put, I must begin to only allow myself to fill up on loving thoughts. I must abstain from negative thinking and negative conversations. I must allow the God that stirs me, my creative force to express itself. Emerson once stated this truth, “We are all inlets for this Divine Energy. However, it is our choice to become outlets.” Our theme this month at CSL Kaua`i is “Choice.” We cannot live a choiceless life. We are spontaneous beings. Martin Luther King knew this. He had the choice to rebel, submit, or just simply walk in unarmed truth and love. He chose the way of truth and love.

We are at choice. The Life Force is moving through us. We cannot deny it. We are living. We are breathing. We are creatively expressing even when we think we are not. We are creatively expressing negatively or positively. We are buying into the collective consciousness and giving into it, or we are shifting the consciousness within ourselves and believing and living as something greater.

My question for all of us today is this. Firstly, do you believe you have a choice to live your life differently and more expansively than you ever have before? No matter what you’ve been through or where you are now, are you willing to take a step upward into an even higher way of being? Do you look at the world and say “what’s the use” or can you see it differently and live it differently? Can you look for the good?

I am willing to live more fully than I ever have before, to fill up on the things and people that inspire me, to inspire myself by allowing the God of me, the Life Force to live fully. And when I bump into something in life – a small thing or a big thing in the world of form – instead of giving into it, I will remember that as I seek to feel and do good, I can shift anything. As I walk with the unarmed truth of love, I can do anything.

Dr. King died for Truth. Jesus did, too. Gandhi did, too. I do not believe we have to die martyrs to reveal our Truth, but I do believe we have to die to the part of ourselves that denies that we are anything less than that Truth.

Love and Aloha,

Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Founding Director CSL Kaua`i and the Institute of Magnificence and Author of “What Do I Need to KNOW? 101 Thoughts That Changed My Life” and “This Thing Called Treatment,” both available on Amazon.