A tough mind and a tender heart -

I'm reading a book of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sermons entitled Strength to Love. The first sermon is on Mt. 10:16, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." King notes that Jesus recognized the need for blending opposites and writes, "We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart."

Concerning a tough mind, as opposed to "softmindedness" - "Few people have the toughness of mind to judge critically and to discern the true from the false, the fact from the fiction. Our minds are constantly being invaded by legions of half-truths, prejudices, and false facts. One of the great needs of mankind is to be lifted above the morass of false propaganda."

Concerning a tender heart, as opposed to "hardheartedness" - "And there are hardhearted and bitter individuals among us who would combat the opponent with physical violence and corroding hatred. Violence brings only temporary victories; violence, by creating many more social problems that it solves, never brings permanent peace."

Concerning a third way - “A third way is open in our quest for freedom, namely, nonviolent resistance, that combines toughmindedness and tenderheartedness and avoids the complacency and do-nothingnesss of the softminded and the violence and bitterness of the hardhearted. . . . Through nonviolent resistance we shall be able to oppose the unjust system and at the same time love the perpetrators of the system."

Concerning a God who is wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove - "The greatness of our God lies in the fact that he is both toughminded and tenderhearted. . . . God is neither hardhearted nor softminded. He is toughminded enough to transcend the world; he is tenderhearted enough to live in it. He does not leave us alone in our agonies and struggles. He seeks us in dark places and suffers with us and for us in our tragic prodigality.”


I love that - toughminded enough to transcend the world and tenderhearted enough to live in it.