Greetings Orchard Covenant Church Family,
Today, January 15, 2026, would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 97th birthday. Ninety-seven years, nearly a century of a dream that, while we have seen some progress, we know there is more work that must be done. His vision still burns bright in the hearts of those who refuse to let it die. As we remember the legacy he left us, we are reminded of the moral courage that sustained him through years of unrelenting justice work. Moral courage kept him going when the dream felt deferred and when progress seemed painfully slow. Do you have moral courage?
Dr. King believed that “unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” But he had to cling to that belief on days when hatred seemed louder than love, when lies appeared to be winning. In some ways we are living in those days now. We are tired of seeing injustice, tired of waiting for change. And yet the work continues, because the dream Dr. King had for a worldwide Beloved Community, though it feels distant, is still worth pursuing.
The weariness that comes is nothing new to those who pursue justice. Scripture speaks directly to this struggle saying, “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up”(Galatians 6:9, NRSV). This was Dr. King’s lifeline during the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott, in the Birmingham jail cell, when critics tried to stop him. He persevered not because he saw immediate results, but because he trusted God’s timing. He planted seeds of justice knowing he might never see them fully bloom, yet he planted anyway, trusting that God’s promises never fail even when it is beyond what we can see.
The promise in Galatians gives us hope: God guarantees the harvest is coming “at the proper time.” Not our preferred time, but God’s proper time. Dr. King said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” And so, we bend with it, trusting the arc, planting faithfully, and believing our work joins God’s unstoppable movement toward justice.
Dr. King’s legacy calls us to moral courage: the work continues because God remains faithful. The dream lives on because “we the people” still dare to believe justice belongs in the world God loves. Keep planting. Keep trusting God. God will bring us the harvest at the proper time!
With God’s Hope,
Rev. Tam
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