Praying Legs by debgrant
This is to honor those millions who have marched in protests in the past, who marched in protests in the present, and continue to do what they can for the sake of a “more perfect union.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel
He came to this country as an exile fleeing from those who killed his family.
Heschel called for “moral grandeur and spiritual audacity.”
He sent a telegram to JFK saying: “Please demand of religious leaders personal involvement and not just solemn declarations.”
After marching with MLK from Selma, he wrote “Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.”
Heschel believed in the “human capacity for compassion and justice.”
Rather than retreating and insulating himself from the world, he cultivated diverse relationships in order to help heal it.
I used to think that protest marches didn’t matter. I was wrong. Instead of being a call to arms, they are a call to legs. They are faith in action. Action stretches our hopelessness. Anything that stretches our bodies and our minds and our hearts hurts at first as it tears old tissue and begins to grow new muscle. Action matters whether you are able to do it with your legs, your love, your funds, your help, your empathy, your mind, your work, your voice or any other act that courses through your body with spiritual audacity.
It is time for our faith to grow new muscle.
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Peace,
debgrant
So very perfect for the times we find ourselves in.