This Day Calls for Martin Luther King’s Vision
Jan. 20, 2025, 1:00 a.m. ET
By Esau McCaulley, Opinion Writer for NY Times
"On Monday we’re celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and inaugurating Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. That may seem like an odd pairing, especially to those of us who believe Mr. Trump has fueled a culture of skepticism, denial and indifference to matters of injustice.
But if Dr. King’s life taught us anything, it is that hope is most useful when the evidence runs the other way toward despair. Set against dark times, hope points us toward something better.
Dr. King’s ministry took place in a country marked by segregation, an unpopular war abroad and the widespread social and economic disenfranchisement of African Americans.
This is not 1963. But the troubled times many of us feel we are in make Dr. King’s message especially relevant...
Our troubles now in the United States are not the product of one election. The past decade or so of American life has seen an unending parade of mass shootings, racially motivated violence, economic instability and wars in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine where innocent civilians have suffered.
Speaking about the problems is not the hard part. Much more difficult is to find the strength to believe there is a hope beyond our jeremiads. Despair has never liberated anybody.
I am still inspired by Dr. King’s witness, but I do not believe that we can be content with borrowing his dream. It’s not enough for someone sitting in the rubble of 1963 to outline a vision that helped create the more just world we inhabit. We need someone who picked his or her way through the partial ruin of recent years to deliver a fresh word.
We need more people [like You] with the courage to say that we do not have to see the foreigner as a threat but instead as a fellow bearer of the image of God. To see the struggles in our cities for what they are, not as a means of changing the subject. And to recognize that rural America is more than a place where resentments and votes can be whipped up — it needs revitalization.
We can’t push suffering onto others without it returning to us. Our world is interconnected whether we want to acknowledge it or not. We can’t build walls high enough to blot out the world’s problems, but we can extend our hands far enough to make a difference in the lives of those who are hurting.
Source: Read complete NY Times article here
PAUSE & BRING IT TO PRAYER:
Let us ask ourselves...
How am I going to outwardly help my brothers and sisters in need?
How will I live my life as a courageous follower of Jesus Christ?
How will I be part of the solution that stands for justice?
How will I spread the Light of Christ and bring Hope to others?
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