Wesley Church

People Blessing People

Devotional February 4, 2021

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
       therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
       blessed are all those who wait for him.
              Isaiah 30:18, NRSV

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
              Galatians 6:9-10, NRSV

She is the woman, the figure, the civil rights icon best known for standing up for civil rights… by sitting down. Given that she was born on February 4, today is often recognized as “Rosa Parks Day.” 

Parks, of course, was arrested on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to comply with an unjust order to vacate her seat on a segregated bus. Parks’ intentional act of civil disobedience helped inspire the Montgomery Bus Boycott, further the lawsuits that would lead to bus desegregation, and advance the cause of civil rights. 

Yet of the events of that day, she once commented: “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Tired of giving in. Tired of capitulating to unjust and racist laws. Tired of injustice. 

As a Christian people, we worship a God of justice. We worship a God who calls us to pursue justice. We worship a God who, in the words of Galatians, calls us to “not grow weary in doing what is right” (Galatians 6:9, NRSV). 

So while the struggle for justice may be long, and hard, and downright tiring… may we be ever more tired of injustice itself. 

Be the right kind of tired, friends, and remember:

Our God is bigger than coronavirus. 
Our vision is bigger than coronavirus, too. 
We are people blessing people. 
We are Wesley Church.   

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