Some of us feel afraid, others avoidant, still others agitated in the days leading up to the presidential inauguration. As we grapple with our fears and feelings, perhaps one place to find hope is in looking to the past—to the man we just honored on Monday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
MLK’s legacy does not offer us an “it’s all going to be okay” brand of comfort. Instead, it calls us to face injustice wholeheartedly—arm-in-arm with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And it reminds us that we do so because Jesus did so.
“[King’s] truth telling was not a mere venting of frustrations,” writes Esau Mccauley in “It’s Not Enough to Preach Racial Justice. We Need to Champion Policy Change.”
“He was doing work similar to the biblical prophets of old. He was holding up a mirror to American culture so that it could see what it had become in light of God’s vision for a just society.”
As we embark upon a week that will undoubtedly make an appearance in history books to come, may we remember the hope that we have. The arc of history will bend toward justice, and Justice itself will return in Jesus Christ. Until that moment, may we choose the path of true Christlikeness, even—especially—in difficult days.
