You and me — we need each other to be good.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Oberlin College, June 1965

I heard this quote from Martin Luther King, Jr., today in a Trinity Forum conversation. It is from the Commencement Address for Oberlin College by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, June 1965, Oberlin Ohio (emphasis mine):

All I'm saying is simply this: that all life is interrelated, that somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. ~~Martin Luther King

When I heard the beginning of the sentence, “For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be…” it reminded me of Paul’s lament, “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:19). Interesting to think of the reason for that inability to “do the good I want to do” is related not only to my relationship to God but also to fellow humans. I guess it’s part of the shalom we pray for, the harmony of all things.