Inheriting a call to service: How MLK followed in his dad’s footsteps

This week we pause as a nation to remember a prince of peace whose last name was King. His reign was brief. His life was complicated. And his dream has not been fully realized 63 years after he first articulated it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Much like the year in which Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated (five years after the historic March on Washington), political tension, disunity as a nation and rioting in the streets continue to characterize us. Even though we will soon celebrate our 250th anniversary as a democracy, we are not much in a partying mood.

With that in mind, it's time we took time to reflect on the difference we might make. Dr. King’s birthday weekend allows us to press the pause button and consider our individual part in handing off the baton of peace and beating the drum for liberty and justice.

In other words, this national holiday is an opportunity to recognize our role in modeling the values Dr. King espoused. After all, they are consistent with the message an ancient Hebrew prophet voiced calling us “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)

MLK’s vision for America was not formulated in a vacuum. The person whose memory we honor this weekend was the product of his circumstances and the people who seeded his dream for a more God-honoring society.

Martin Luther King Jr. was keenly influenced by his pastor-father Martin Luther King Jr. His dad’s name was not the only thing Martin inherited. What a young MLK observed in his father’s life and in his father’s church impacted him as he contemplated his own call to ministry.

Unlike some pastor’s kids (PKs), who rebel against their dad’s vocation and run off the rails, young Martin embraced what he saw and what he heard at home. The leadership roles the elder King shouldered in the civil rights movement motivated his son to follow in his father’s footsteps. The shadow of influence inevitably crept over a watching son.

I can relate. My father was a pastor for most of my formative years. I greatly admired what he stood for and the faith he proclaimed from the pulpit each Sunday. Dad included me in his pastoral life.

One of my favorite photos of my childhood captures me sitting at my dad’s typewriter in his church office. I would accompany him on home visitations, hospital calls and nursing home services. I saw integrity in the man at church and the one who played catch with me in the backyard. They were one and the same person.

When Mrs. Scates at Pioneer Junior High assigned our class a career paper, I knew immediately what I wanted to write about. As a ninth-grader I knew I was being led to become a pastor. Although 14 is too early for many to identify their life calling, I had a degree of certainty. My dad’s example and influence played a significant role. But there were other factors.

My sense of call to the ministry was derived from an inner desire to serve the Lord with natural abilities and gifts that others had affirmed in me. My father’s role in my life, as was true in the life of MLK, quietly confirmed my call. The one to whom I looked up was validating the value of a life of service to Christ and His Kingdom. For that I will always be grateful.

That said, it is important to recognize that there are others who are looking to us for life cues whether we realize it or not. They include children, grandchildren, neighbors, work colleagues, those with whom we attend church, and those who simply know our reputation. These are clarifying their moral code and vocational values by observing those around them. It is likely we are among those they are watching.

And since we are being watched, we have more of a responsibility than we may think to help bring about Dr. King’s dream for peace, justice, racial equality and freedom. The degree to which we are striving for and incorporating those realities into our lives and relationships will impact those around us. And that is more than a dream!

• The Rev. Greg Asimakoupoulos is a former Naperville resident who writes about faith and family.