Blueprint for Living
Psalm 40:1-11
Human Relations Day and Dr. King’s Birthday
January 20, 2008
Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church

Rev. Melanie Lee Carey       

On October 26, 1967, six months before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to a group of students at Barratt Junior High School in Philadelphia.  His talk was entitled “What is your life’s Blueprint?”

He began by saying to the students “I want to ask you a question, and that is: What is your life's blueprint? What is your life’s blueprint.”

It is, of course, a great organizing question—What is your life’s blueprint?—and today a little more than 40 years later it is a still a good question to ask ourselves—What is your life’s blueprint?.

Back in 1967 Dr. King said to those Jr. High students gathered in Philadelphia these words:
“Whenever a building is constructed,” you usually have an architect who draws a blueprint, and that blueprint serves as the pattern, as the guide, and a building is not well erected without a good, solid blueprint.”

“Now each of you is in the process of building the structure of your lives, and the question is whether you have a proper, a solid and a sound blueprint.”

“I want to suggest some of the things that should be in your life's blueprint. Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance.”

“Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well…

“And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better.”

“If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well. If you can't be a pine at the top of the hill, be a shrub in the valley. But be the best little shrub on the side of the hill.  Be a bush if you can't be a tree. If you can't be a highway, just be a trail. If you can't be a sun, be a star. For it isn't by size that you win or fail. Be the best of whatever you are.”  (i)

A blueprint for living, it was important back in Dr. King’s day, and it is equally important for us now, more than 40 years later. What’s your life’s blueprint?

For the truth is that in this life, we need a solid blueprint to build our lives on.  For without a solid blueprint, the construction of our lives doesn’t hold up.  For we know that storms come, we know that winds howl, that hard times visit us and the people we love—without a solid blueprint, the construction doesn’t hold up and our things begin to crumble.

What’s your life’s blueprint?

The writer of psalm 40, our scripture for today—understood the importance of having a blueprint for his life—and his blueprint was trusting in God.  Holding onto his faith despite difficult times, despite falling into all sorts of pits and mud holes—the author of psalm 40 builds his life on a God who is faithful, a God who keeps promises—a God who is true to his word. A God who pulls us from the pit, and lifts us out of the ditch—a God who places on a solid rock and gives us a new song to sing.

And while God is not like itunes, where you can just download songs you want—God’s songs are placed into our hearts and the melodies play and the lyrics rolls when we need to hear them.

Granted, the psalmist lived centuries before Jesus came, but his statement about receiving a new song, is what Christianity is about. Christianity helps us to interpret life—it is a blueprint on which to base our lives on.

In addition to the Bible, we also have our hymnbook—I invite you take out the books we have in front of you—United Methodist Hymnal, The Faith We Sing and in Spanish—Mil Voces Para Celebrar-which in English means O for a thousand tounges to Sing.

If you page through these books-- you’ll find pieces about some very heavy themes: sin, death, war, social ills, pain, personal troubles and similar topics. But when you sing or read those hymns, you find that they are written in the vocabulary of hope, confidence, redemption and spiritual affirmation.  Like the psalms, they are a blueprint for living.

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was shot in the head while standing on the second floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, surrounded by friends and associates. As he lay dying, he spoke his last words to his friend and musician Ben Branch, who was to perform at the event King was scheduled to attend that night. King said, "Ben, make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty"(ii)

The hymn “Precious Lord, Take My Hand" was written by Thomas A. Dorsey in 1932 following the death of his wife in childbirth and their baby shortly thereafter. It was sung at King’s funeral on April 9, 1968 by Mahalia Jackson. 

When my way grows drear, Precious Lord, linger near,
When my life is almost gone, Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand lest I fall: Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me home.

Those are strong words of encouragement and hope, and they also make up some of the lines of the blueprint for living that comes with our faith in Christ. They help to form the perspective from which Christians interpret life — and death.  They spoke to Dr. King about his blueprint for living and they speak to us today.

What is your life’s blueprint?  As we remember Dr. King and his dream… as we seek to be his legacy in our world, let us be sure we also have a blueprint for living—a solid blueprint that will bring us into the future where all God’s children will sing with the harmonies of liberty.  Psalm 40 reminds us—happy are those who trust in God’s word—may God’s word be our life’s blueprint and may we continue to follow the dream until it becomes reality—for all God’s children.

Amen.

(i) From What’s your life’s Blueprint?  As quoted from www.drmartinlutherkingjr.com/

(ii) Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68; Simon & Schuster, 2006; p.766