October 2025
Moving towards a world of compassion and justice always takes longer than we want and it is easy to lose hope. Many people worry that funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Foodshere) may run out in the next week. Over the weekend, Leigh and I attended the No Kings Rally on Saturday and the Common Ground Public Assembly with Kairos Collective folks on Sunday. Bishop Desmond Tutu often shared that change happens in God’s time and his colleagues often responded, “When will God move faster?” All of this reminds me that we live in a moment where we believe the changes we see in history were obvious and straightforward instead of understanding the obstacles, challenges and near failures people experienced.
In the introduction to The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight for the Vote, a history of the final push for women’s suffrage, the author, Elaine F. Weiss, illustrates how we often forget the arduous journey for change and the stakes involved because we know the outcome.
It’s too easy to imagine that the enfranchisement of American women slowly arrived, like some evolutionary imperative, a natural step in the gradual march of progress. Or as a gift eventually bestowed by wise men on their grateful wives, daughters and sisters. The women asked politely, staged a few picturesque marches, hoisted a few picket signs and without much drama, “Votes for Women” was achieved. That’s not how it happened.
When we lose a sense of this history and the story and the challenges, we lose a sense of hope. When we only know the outcomes, we do not understand that in our own difficult times, we have roadmaps. We have examples of people before us doing extraordinary things in daunting moments.
The story of the widow and the judge in Luke 18:1-8 is short yet powerful. Its transformational line is
there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’
She kept coming. She was relentless. We don’t get details. But imagine what that looks like. Every single day she walks from her home to wherever the judge is and she clearly and simply states, “Grant me justice against my accuser.”Think how hard that must have been each and every day.
Hope. The widow lives hope. The widow demonstrates hope for us in two ways which each of us can adopt. She prays and she acts.
We know little about the widow.. But let’s not make the mistake of believing she is perfect. She is a person like each of us. She is flawed, makes mistakes, has good days and bad days.
Her consistent and persistent action leads the Judge to this conclusion.
5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’
In difficult times, in moments that seem overwhelming, the lesson of the widow is important. We must continue to pray, to trust in God and we must continue to act. To put one foot in front of the other each day. We must trust that our repeated actions over time will create a change, and will have an impact.