Strength To Love

Strength to Love

Strength to Love is an interesting book by Martin Luther King, Jr. that helps the reader understand many things that the average person doesn't usually think about. It is almost a guide for improving your life as it offers suggestions on how to break away from the norm and if everyone followed what he preaches, the world would be a much better and much more peaceful place.

The first seven chapters of the book let the reader know the flaws of the average human. King talks about how most people are soft minded. They tend to believe everything they hear in the media and don't dig deeper for the truth in all stories. The opposite of this is tough minded people who engage in hard, solid thinking. King also talks about how most people are conformist as they only do what other do because there is a fear of being different. "Jumboism" is a word that King uses to describe the notion that we find security in what is large and expensive. We do this by acquiring nice cars and houses. We also do this by living in big cities and working for big corporations. This constant worship of size leads to a fear of being identified with the minority. We all want to be the ones that are looked up to for our material possessions. King talks about what it means to be neighborly. He tells us that most people only respect and relate to those that are similar to him (race, religion, nation). But being a neighbor actually means that you relate to all of those around you and not just the ones that are similar to you. King then talks about how we do a lot of talking compared to the little amount of action that we take. We all say that we're going to do things, but how many of those things do we actually follow through with? The word "love" is thrown around very easily these days, but the only true way to show love is through action. King then goes on to tell us a story about a man who is wealthy, but he calls him a fool. The man is a fool because his riches deceived him and stop realizing that he needs God to survive. He may have a lot of possessions around him but he is dead without God.

The second half of the book is more of a reality check than a guide on how to live. King begins by telling us that there is a definite good and evil. They have both been around forever. But throughout history evil has shown itself to be a self-destructing machine. The death of one evil does not mean the elimination of all evil. King then goes into the truth that the majority of your aspirations will never be reached. Some people may view this as cynical, but it is just being real. Many people can't handle the fact that they won't reach all of their dreams and they turn negative because of "it poisons the soul." In order to overcome this you must realize that it's just a part of life and you can't do everything you want to. In the next chapter King describes the reasons why Christianity and communism cannot co-exist; they are opposites. He then reminds us that God is the physical master of the universe. He is able to subdue all of the powers of evil. He is able to give us interior resources that will help us confront the difficulties we face in life. The next chapter is about how everyone has fears. In order to overcome these fears we must face them and ask ourselves "why am I afraid?" Aristotle called courage "the affirmation of man's essential nature." The only ways to master fear is through