Blog

Persist in the Dream

“Let us not grow weary in well-doing,

for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” Galatians 6:9

April 25, 1957, when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was denied access to speak at Vanderbilt University because of the color of his skin, Scarritt College, now Scarritt Bennett Center, opened its doors. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s address was apart of the Conference on Christian Faith and Human Relations.

His speech was entitled “The Role of the Church in Facing the Nation’s Chief Moral Dilemma,” which King characterized as systemic segregation based on racism, a blatant denial of our unity in Christ. Dr. King preached in our historic Wightman Chapel declaring that nonviolent love, courage, and justice must guide the Christian witness. His words challenged the Church to take a stand.  That moment was more than hospitality, it was holy resistance, faith-filled courage, and a public declaration that the dream of justice must persist.

Today, nearly 70 years later, we still hear his voice echoing through Wightman Chapel. In his address King outlined several ways the church can help solve the national racial problemsand calls upon his audience to be “maladjusted” to the “evils of segregation.… the madness of militarism and the self-defeating method of physical violence.” King urged, “Our motto must be, “Freedom and justice through love.””

Let’s Reflect

As we stand on the shoulders of those who believed in God’s dream of justice, we return to the reminder found in Galatians 6:9:“Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

1. “Do not grow weary”

In Greek, enkakeō means not to lose courage, not to faint, not to give up in the face of pressure. Paul writes to a community committed to justice, generosity, and deep spiritual formation, a people tired of doing right in a world doing wrong.

2. “In well-doing”

The phrase refers to acts of justice, compassion, righteousness, and community building. This is the work of healing, advocating, leading, loving, and transforming.

3. “In due season”

Kairos time, God’s appointed moment, not our rushed expectation. Every act of justice, every seed of kindness, every labor of love has an appointed time. When Dr. King was chosen to lead the Movement, that was his appointed time!

4. “We shall reap”

There is a promise connected to perseverance. What we plant in faith, God grows in God’s time.

5. “If we do not lose heart”

The reaping is conditional to keeping the faith. So, Hold on. Keep going. Persist in the dream.

Let’s Act: Persisting in Today’s World

We live in a moment saturated with fear, division, and fatigue:

• Gun violence on our streets
• Child hunger in our communities
• Racial injustice and inequity
• Economic uncertainty
• Political chaos
• Youth battling anxiety and hopelessness
• Families facing pressures from every side

And yet… God still calls us to persist in the dream.

To persist means:

• To show up again even when you’re tired
• To act justly even when others choose violence
• To choose hope when despair feels easier
• To speak love in a world that echoes hate
• To pursue justice as holy work, not optional labor
• To believe that your seed of faith matters
• To hold the dream even when delayed

Just as Dr. King stood in Wightman Chapel proclaiming God’s justice, just as Galatians calls us to keep sowing good, just as Scarritt Bennett continues its legacy of spiritual formation,
racial justice, women’s empowerment, and transformative education, we too must persist.

Persist for the next generation.
Persist for the sake of the marginalized.
Persist for the community you love.
Persist because justice is a spiritual discipline.
Persist because the dream is God-sized and God-sustained.
Persist because we are called to “not lose heart.”

And when we persist even the smallest seed of goodness becomes a harvest of hope.

Let’s Pray

Holy and Faithful God, We thank You for the dream You placed in our hearts a dream of justice, mercy, and beloved community. Strengthen our hands when we grow weary.
Steady our spirits when the work feels heavy. Anchor us in the legacy of those who came before us like Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who stood on this sacred campus proclaiming a higher way of love.

Help us to sow goodness with intention, to labor for justice with courage, and to persist in hope with unwavering faith. May we not lose heart, for in due season, You promise a harvest. Make us faithful. Make us bold. Make us persistent. In the name of the God who dreams justice, Amen.

Persist,

Rev. Dr. Sondrea L. Tolbert

Executive Director & CEO

Scarritt Bennett Center