I want to use as the subject from which to
preach: �The Three Dimensions of a Complete
Life.�
You know, they used to tell us in Hollywood
that in order for a movie to be complete,
it had to be three-dimensional. Well, this
morning I want to seek to get over to each
of us that if life itself is to be complete,
it must be three-dimensional.
Many, many centuries ago, there was a man
by the name of John who found himself in prison
out on a lonely, obscure island called Patmos.
And I�ve been in prison just enough to know
that it�s a lonely experience.
And when you are incarcerated in such a situation,
you are deprived of almost every freedom,
but the freedom to think, the freedom to pray,
the freedom to reflect and to meditate.
And while John was out on this lonely island
in prison, he lifted his vision to high heaven
and he saw, descending out of heaven, a new
heaven and a new earth. Over in the 21st chapter
of the book of Revelation, it opens by saying,
�And I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
And I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven.�
And one of the greatest glories of this new
city of God that John saw was its completeness.
It was not up on one side and down on the
other, but it was complete in all three of
its dimensions.
And so in this same chapter as we look down
to the 16th verse, John says, �The length
and the breadth and the height of it are equal.�
In other words, this new city of God, this
new city of ideal humanity is not an unbalanced
entity, but is complete on all sides. Now
I think John is saying something here in all
of the symbolism of this text and the symbolism
of this chapter. He�s saying at bottom that
life as it should be and life at its best
is a life that is complete on all sides.
And there are three dimensions of any complete
life to which we can fitly give the words
of this text: length, breadth, and height.
Now the length of life as we shall use it
here is the inward concern for one�s own
welfare. In other words, it is that inward
concern that causes one to push forward, to
achieve his own goals and ambitions. The breadth
of life as we shall use it here is the outward
concern for the welfare of others. And the
height of life is the upward reach for God.
Now you got to have all three of these to
have a complete life.
LENGTH OF LIFE
Now let�s turn for the moment to the length
of life. I said that this is the dimension
of life where we are concerned with developing
our inner powers. In a sense this is the selfish
dimension of life.
There is such a thing as rational and healthy
self-interest. A great Jewish rabbi, the late
Joshua Leibman, wrote a book some years ago
entitled Peace of Mind. And he has a chapter
in that book entitled �Love Thyself Properly.�
And what he says in that chapter, in substance,
is that before you can love other selves adequately,
you�ve got to love your own self properly.
You know, a lot of people don�t love themselves.
And they go through life with deep and haunting
emotional conflicts. So the length of life
means that you must love yourself.
And you know what loving yourself also means?
It means that you�ve got to accept yourself.
So many people are busy trying to be somebody
else. God gave all of us something significant.
And we must pray every day, asking God to
help us to accept ourselves. That means everything.
Too many Negroes are ashamed of themselves,
ashamed of being black. A Negro got to rise
up and say from the bottom of his soul, �I
am somebody. I have a rich, noble, and proud
heritage. However exploited and however painful
my history has been, I�m black, but I�m
black and beautiful.� This is what we�ve
got to say.
We�ve got to accept ourselves. And we must
pray, �Lord, help me to accept myself every
day; help me to accept my tools.�
I remember when I was in college, I majored
in sociology, and all sociology majors had
to take a course that was required called
statistics. And statistics can be very complicated.
You�ve got to have a mathematical mind,
a real knowledge of geometry, and you�ve
got to know how to find the mean, the mode,
and the median.
I never will forget. I took this course and
I had a fellow classmate who could just work
that stuff out, you know. And he could do
his homework in about an hour. We would often
go to the lab or the workshop, and he would
just work it out in about an hour, and it
was over for him.
And I was trying to do what he was doing;
I was trying to do mine in an hour. And the
more I tried to do it in an hour, the more
I was flunking out in the course.
And I had to come to a very hard conclusion.
I had to sit down and say, �Now, Martin
Luther King, Leif Cane has a better mind than
you.� Sometimes you have to acknowledge
that.
And I had to say to myself, �Now, he may
be able to do it in an hour, but it takes
me two or three hours to do it.� I was not
willing to accept myself. I was not willing
to accept my tools and my limitations.
But you know in life we�re called upon to
do this. A Ford car trying to be a Cadillac
is absurd, but if a Ford will accept itself
as a Ford, it can do many things that a Cadillac
could never do: it can get in parking spaces
that a Cadillac can never get in.
And in life some of us are Fords and some
of us are Cadillacs. Moses says in �Green
Pastures,� �Lord, I ain�t much, but
I is all I got.�
The principle of self-acceptance is a basic
principle in life.
Now the other thing about the length of life:
after accepting ourselves and our tools, we
must discover what we are called to do. And
once we discover it, we should set out to
do it with all of the strength and all of
the power that we have in our systems.
After we�ve discovered what God called us
to do, after we�ve discovered our life�s
work, we should set out to do that work so
well that the living, the dead, or the unborn
couldn�t do it any better.
Now this does not mean that everybody will
do the so-called big, recognized things of
life. Very few people will rise to the heights
of genius in the arts and the sciences. Very
few collectively will rise to certain professions.
Most of us will have to be content to work
in the fields and in the factories and on
the streets. But we must see the dignity of
all labor.
When I was in Montgomery, Alabama, I went
to a shoe shop quite often, known as the Gordon
Shoe Shop. And there was a fellow in there
that used to shine my shoes, and it was just
an experience to witness this fellow shining
my shoes. He would get that rag, you know,
and he could bring music out of it.
And I said to myself, �This fellow has a
Ph.D. in shoe shining.�
What I�m saying to you this morning, my
friends, even if it falls your lot to be a
street sweeper, go on out and sweep streets
like Michelangelo painted pictures; sweep
streets like Handel and Beethoven composed
music; sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote
poetry; sweep streets so well that all the
host 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 on the top of a hill,
Be a scrub in the valley - but be
The best little scrub 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 the sun be a star;
It isn�t by size that you win or fail --
Be the best of whatever you are.
And when you do this, when you do this, you�ve
mastered the length of life.
This onward push to the end of self-fulfillment
is the end of a person�s life. Now don�t
stop here, though.
You know, a lot of people get no further in
life than the length. They develop their inner
powers; they do their jobs well. But do you
know, they try to live as if nobody else lives
in the world but themselves? And they use
everybody as mere tools to get to where they�re
going. They don�t love anybody but themselves.
And the only kind of love that they really
have for other people is utilitarian love.
You know, they just love people that they
can use.
A lot of people never get beyond the first
dimension of life. They use other people as
mere steps by which they can climb to their
goals and their ambitions. These people don�t
work out well in life. They may go for awhile,
they may think they�re making it all right,
but there is a law. They call it the law of
gravitation in the physical universe, and
it works, it�s final, it�s inexorable:
whatever goes up can come down.
You shall reap what you sow. God has structured
the universe that way. And he who goes through
life not concerned about others will be a
subject, victim of this law.
So I move on and say that it is necessary
to add breadth to length.
BREADTH OF LIFE
Now the breadth of life is the outward concern
for the welfare of others, as I said. And
a man has not begun to live until he can rise
above the narrow confines of his own individual
concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
One day Jesus told a parable. You will remember
that parable. He had a man that came to him
to talk with him about some very profound
concerns. And they finally got around to the
question, �Who is my neighbor?�
And this man wanted to debate with Jesus.
This question could have very easily ended
up in thin air as a theological or philosophical
debate. But you remember Jesus immediately
pulled that question out of thin air and placed
it on a dangerous curve between Jerusalem
and Jericho.
He talked about a certain man who fell among
thieves. Two men came by and they just kept
going. And then finally another man came,
a member of another race, who stopped and
helped him.
And that parable ends up saying that this
good Samaritan was a great man; he was a good
man because he was concerned about more than
himself.
Now you know, there are many ideas about why
the priest and the Levite passed and didn�t
stop to help that man. A lot of ideas about
it.
Some say that they were going to a church
service, and they were running a little late,
you know, and couldn�t be late for church,
so they kept going because they had to get
down to the synagogue.
And then there are others who would say that
they were involved in the priesthood and consequently
there was a priestly law which said that if
you were going to administer the sacrament
or what have you, you couldn�t touch a human
body 24 hours before worship.
Now there�s another possibility. It is possible
that they were going down to Jericho to organize
a Jericho Road Improvement Association. That�s
another possibility. And they may have passed
by because they felt that it was better to
deal with the problem from the causal source
rather than one individual victim. That�s
a possibility.
But you know, when I think about this parable,
I think of another possibility as I use my
imagination. It�s possible that these men
passed by on the other side because they were
afraid.
You know, the Jericho Road is a dangerous
road. I�ve been on it and I know. And I
never will forget, Mrs. King and I were in
the Holy Land some time ago. We rented a car
and we drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho,
a distance of about 16 miles. You get on that
Jericho road -- I�m telling you it�s a
winding, curving, meandering road, very conducive
for robbery.
And I said to my wife, �Now I can see why
Jesus used this road as the occasion for his
parable.� Here you are when you start out
in Jerusalem: you are 2200 feet above sea
level, and when you get down to Jericho 16
miles later -- I mean you have 16 miles from
Jerusalem -- you�re 1200 feet below sea
level. During the days of Jesus that road
came to the point of being known as the �Bloody
Path.�
So when I think about the priest and the Levite,
I think those brothers were afraid. They were
just like me. I was going out to my father�s
house in Atlanta the other day. He lives about
three or four miles from me, and you go out
there by going down Simpson Road.
And then when I came back later that night
-- and brother, I can tell you, Simpson Road
is a winding road. And a fellow was standing
out there trying to flag me down. And I felt
that he needed some help; I knew he needed
help. But I didn�t know it. I�ll be honest
with you, I kept going. I wasn�t really
willing to take the risk.
I say to you this morning that the first question
that the priest asked was the first question
that I asked on that Jericho Road of Atlanta
known as Simpson Road.
The first question that the Levite asked was,
��If I stop to help this man, what will
happen to me?� But the good Samaritan came
by and he reversed the question. Not �What
will happen to me if I stop to help this man?�
but �What will happen to this man if I do
not stop to help him?� This was why that
man was good and great.
He was great because he was willing to take
a risk for humanity; he was willing to ask,
�What will happen to this man?� not �What
will happen to me?�
This is what God needs today: Men and women
who will ask, �What will happen to humanity
if I don�t help? What will happen to the
civil rights movement if I don�t participate?
What will happen to my city if I don�t vote?
What will happen to the sick if I don�t
visit them?� This is how God judges people
in the final analysis.
Oh, there will be a day, the question won�t
be, �How many awards did you get in life?�
Not that day.
It won�t be, �How popular were you in
your social setting?� That won�t be the
question that day. It will not ask how many
degrees you�ve been able to get.
The question that day will not be concerned
with whether you are a �Ph.D.� or a �no
D.� It will not be concerned with whether
you went to Morehouse or whether you went
to �No House.�
The question that day will not be, �How
beautiful is your house?� The question that
day will not be, �How much money did you
accumulate? How much did you have in stocks
and bonds?�
The question that day will not be, �What
kind of automobile did you have?� On that
day the question will be, �What did you
do for others?�
Now I can hear somebody saying, �Lord, I
did a lot of things in life. I did my job
well; the world honored me for doing my job.
I did a lot of things, Lord; I went to school
and I studied hard. I accumulated a lot of
money, Lord; that�s what I did.�
It seems as if I can hear the Lord of Life
saying, �But I was hungry, and ye fed me
not. I was sick, and ye visited me not. I
was naked, and ye clothed me not. I was in
prison, and you weren�t concerned about
me. So get out of my face. What did you do
for others?�
This is the breadth of life.
Somewhere along the way, we must learn that
there is nothing greater than to do something
for others. And this is the way I�ve decided
to go the rest of my days. That�s what I�m
concerned about.
John, if you and Bernard happen to be around
when I come to the latter-days and that moment
to cross the Jordan, I want you to tell them
that I made a request: I don�t want a long
funeral.
In fact, I don�t even need a eulogy more
than one or two minutes. I hope that I will
live so well the rest of the days -- I don�t
know how long I�ll live, and I�m not concerned
about that -- but I hope I can live so well
that the preacher can get up and say, �He
was faithful.� That�s all, that�s enough.
That�s the sermon I�d like to hear: �Well
done my good and faithful servant. You�ve
been faithful; you�ve been concerned about
others.�
That�s where I want to go from this point
on the rest of my days. �He who is greatest
among you shall be your servant.� I want
to be a servant. I want to be a witness for
my Lord, to do something for others.
And don�t forget in doing something for
others that you have what you have because
of others. Don�t forget that. We are tied
together in life and in the world.
And you may think you got all you got by yourself.
But you know, before you got out here to church
this morning, you were dependent on more than
half of the world. You get up in the morning
and go to the bathroom, and you reach over
for a bar of soap, and that�s handed to
you by a Frenchman.
You reach over for a sponge, and that�s
given to you by a turk. You reach over for
a towel, and that comes to your hand from
the hands of a Pacific Islander.
And then you go on to the kitchen to get your
breakfast. You reach on over to get a little
coffee, and that�s poured in your cup by
a South American. Or maybe you decide that
you want a little tea this morning, only to
discover that that�s poured in your cup
by a Chinese. Or maybe you want a little cocoa,
that�s poured in your cup by a West African.
Then you want a little bread and you reach
over to get it, and that�s given to you
by the hands of an English-speaking farmer,
not to mention the baker. Before you get through
eating breakfast in the morning, you�re
dependent on more than half the world. That�s
the way God structured it; that�s the way
God structured this world.
So let us be concerned about others because
we are dependent on others.
But don�t stop here either. You know, a
lot of people master the length of life, and
they master the breadth of life, but they
stop right there.
Now if life is to be complete, we must move
beyond our self-interest. We must move beyond
humanity and reach up, way up for the God
of the universe, whose purpose changeth not.
HEIGHT OF LIFE
Now a lot of people have neglected this third
dimension. And you know, the interesting thing
is a lot of people neglect it and don�t
even know they are neglecting it. They just
get involved in other things.
And you know, there are two kinds of atheism.
Atheism is the theory that there is no God.
Now one kind is a theoretical kind, where
somebody just sits down and starts thinking
about it, and they come to a conclusion that
there is no God.
The other kind is a practical atheism, and
that kind goes out of living as if there is
no God. And you know there are a lot of people
who affirm the existence of God with their
lips, and they deny his existence with their
lives. You�ve seen these people who have
a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia
of deeds.
They deny the existence of God with their
lives and they just become so involved in
other things. They become so involved in getting
a big bank account. They become so involved
in getting a beautiful house, which we all
should have.
They become so involved in getting a beautiful
car that they unconsciously just forget about
God. There are those who become so involved
in looking at the man-made lights of the city
that they unconsciously forget to rise up
and look at that great cosmic light and think
about it -- that gets up in the eastern horizon
every morning and moves across the sky with
a kind of symphony of motion and paints its
technicolor across the blue -- a light that
man can never make.
They become so involved in looking at the
skyscraping buildings of the Loop of Chicago
or Empire State Building of New York that
they unconsciously forget to think about the
gigantic mountains that kiss the skies as
if to bathe their peaks in the lofty blue
-- something that man could never make.
They become so busy thinking about radar and
their television that they unconsciously forget
to think about the stars that bedeck the heavens
like swinging lanterns of eternity, those
stars that appear to be shiny, silvery pins
sticking in the magnificent blue pincushion.
They become so involved in thinking about
man�s progress that they forget to think
about the need for God�s power in history.
They end up going days and days not knowing
that God is not with them.
And I�m here to tell you today that we need
God. Modern man may know a great deal, but
his knowledge does not eliminate God.
And I tell you this morning that God is here
to stay. A few theologians are trying to say
that God is dead. And I�ve been asking them
about it because it disturbs me to know that
God died and I didn�t have a chance to attend
the funeral. They haven�t been able to tell
me yet the date of his death.
They haven�t been able to tell me yet who
the coroner was that pronounced him dead.
They haven�t been able to tell me yet where
he�s buried.
You see, when I think about God, I know his
name. He said somewhere, back in the Old Testament,
�I want you to go out, Moses, and tell them
�I Am� sent you.� He said just to make
it clear, let them know that �my last name
is the same as my first, �I Am that I Am.�
Make that clear. I Am.�
And God is the only being in the universe
that can say �I Am� and put a period behind
it. Each of us sitting here has to say, �I
am because of my parents; I am because of
certain environmental conditions; I am because
of certain hereditary circumstances; I am
because of God.�
But God is the only being that can just say,
�I Am� and stop right there. �I Am that
I Am.� And He�s here to stay. Let nobody
make us feel that we don�t need God.
As I come to my conclusion this morning, I
want to say that we should search for him.
We were made for God, and we will be restless
until we find rest in him.
And I say to you this morning that this is
the personal faith that has kept me going.
I�m not worried about the future. You know,
even on this race question, I�m not worried.
I was down in Alabama the other day, and I
started thinking about the state of Alabama
where we worked so hard and they continue
to elect the Wallaces. And down in my home
state of Georgia, we have another sick governor
by the name of Lester Maddox. And all of these
things can get you confused, but they don�t
worry me.
Because the God that I worship is a God that
has a way of saying even to kings and even
to governors, �Be still, and know that I
am God.� And God has not yet turned over
this universe to Lester Maddox and Lurleen
Wallace.
Somewhere I read, �The earth is the Lord�s
and the fulness thereof, and I�m going on
because I have faith in Him. I do not know
what the future holds, but I do know who holds
the future. And if He�ll guide us and hold
our hand, we�ll go on in.
I remember down in Montgomery, Alabama, an
experience that I�d like to share with you.
When we were in the midst of the bus boycott,
we had a marvelous old lady that we affectionately
called Sister Pollard. She was a wonderful
lady about 72 years old and she was still
working at that age.
During the boycott she would walk every day
to and from work. She was the one that somebody
stopped one day and said, �Wouldn�t you
like to ride?� And she said, �No.�
And then the driver moved on and stopped and
thought, and backed up a little and said,
�Well, aren�t you tired?� She said,
�Yes, my feet is tired, but my soul is rested.�
She was a marvelous lady. And one week I can
remember that I had gone through a very difficult
week. Threatening calls had come in all day
and all night the night before, and I was
beginning to falter and to get weak within
and to lose my courage.
And I never will forget that I went to the
mass meeting that Monday night very discouraged
and a little afraid, and wondering whether
we were going to win the struggle. And I got
up to make my talk that night, but it didn�t
come out with strength and power.
Sister Pollard came up to me after the meeting
and said, �Son, what�s wrong with you?�
Said, �You didn�t talk strong enough tonight.�
And I said, �Nothing is wrong, Sister Pollard,
I�m all right.�
She said, �You can�t fool me.� Said,
�Something wrong with you.�
And then she went on to say these words, �Is
the white folks doing something to you that
you don�t like?�
I said, �Everything is going to be all right,
Sister Pollard.�
And then she finally said, �Now come close
to me and let me tell you something one more
time, and I want you to hear it this time.�
She said, �Now I done told you we is with
you.� She said, �Now, even if we ain�t
with you, the Lord is with you.� And she
concluded by saying, �The Lord�s going
to take care of you.�
And I�ve seen many things since that day.
I�ve gone through many experiences since
that night in Montgomery, Alabama. Since that
time, Sister Pollard has died. Since that
time I�ve been in more than 18 jail cells.
Since that time I�ve come perilously close
to death at the hands of a demented Negro
woman. Since that time I�ve seen my home
bombed three times. Since that time I�ve
had to live every day under the threat of
death.
Since that time I�ve had many frustrating
and bewildering nights. But over and over
again I can still hear Sister Pollard�s
words: �God�s going to take care of you.�
So today I can face any man and any woman
with my feet solidly placed on the ground
and my head in the air because I know that
when you are right, God will fight your battle.
�Darker yet may be the night, harder yet
may be the fight. Just stand up for that which
is right.� It seems that I can hear a voice
speaking even this morning, saying to all
of us, �Stand up for what is right. Stand
up for what is just. Lo, I will be with you
even until the end of the world.�
Yes, I�ve seen the lightning flash. I�ve
heard the thunder roll. I�ve felt sin-breakers
dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I
heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight
on. He promised never to leave me, never to
leave me alone. No, never alone. No, never
alone. He promised never to leave me, never
to leave me alone. And I go on in believing
that. Reach out and find the breadth of life.
You may not be able to define God in philosophical
terms. Men through the ages have tried to
talk about him. Plato said that he was the
Architectonic Good. Aristotle called him the
Unmoved Mover. Hegel called him the Absolute
Whole.
Then there was a man named Paul Tillich who
called him Being-Itself. We don�t need to
know all of these high-sounding terms. Maybe
we have to know him and discover him another
way.
One day you ought to rise up and say, �I
know him because he�s a lily of the valley.�
He�s a bright and morning star. He�s a
rose of Sharon. He�s a battle-axe in the
time of Babylon.
And then somewhere you ought to just reach
out and say, �He�s my everything. He�s
my mother and my father. He�s my sister
and my brother. He�s a friend to the friendless.�
This is the God of the universe.
And if you believe in him and worship him,
something will happen in your life. You will
smile when others around you are crying. This
is the power of God.
Go out this morning. Love yourself, and that
means rational and healthy self-interest.
You are commanded to do that. That�s the
length of life.
Then follow that: Love your neighbor as you
love yourself. You are commanded to do that.
That�s the breadth of life.
And I�m going to take my seat now by letting
you know that there�s a first and even greater
commandment: �Love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all
thy strength.� I think the psychologist
would just say with all thy personality. And
when you do that, you�ve got the breadth
of life.
And when you get all three of these together,
you can walk and never get weary. You can
look up and see the morning stars singing
together, and the sons of God shouting for
joy.
When you get all of these working together
in your very life, judgement will roll down
like waters, and righteousness like a mighty
stream.
When you get all the three of these together,
the lamb will lie down with the lion.
When you get all three of these together,
you look up and every valley will be exalted,
and every hill and mountain will be made low;
the rough places will be made plain, and the
crooked places straight; and the glory of
the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh will
see it together.
When you get all three of these working together,
you will do unto others as you�d have them
do unto you.
When you get all three of these together,
you will recognize that out of one blood God
made all men to dwell upon the face of the
earth.
[Audio stops abruptly]
