CROSSING THE BRIDGE

February 27 makes me think of Selma, Alabama, and a bridge that changed the country. The Edmund Pettus Bridge isn’t famous because it’s pretty. It’s famous because people stood on it and faced hatred head-on.

On March 7, 1965, peaceful marchers walked across it demanding their God-given right to vote. They were beaten, bloodied, but they didn’t stop. Bloody Sunday forced the nation to wake up. That bridge became a symbol of courage, of faith in action, of what it means to risk everything for justice.

I grew up three hours from Selma, Alabama, and I’ll be honest. Most of us never really learned the stories that happened in our own backyard. We drove past places like that bridge without knowing how heavy the ground was.

But this is the Gospel. Jesus walked into hate without flinching. He went into the places no one wanted to go and showed what love looks like. Faith is crossing your own Pettus Bridge. It’s stepping into the hard moments, into the fear, into the places where love and justice are needed. Every act of mercy, every word spoken for the voiceless, every choice to do right even when it hurts is a step across that bridge.

Today, February 27, I think about that bridge and I think about my own life. Am I willing to walk into the hard places God calls me to? Am I willing to act when it’s uncomfortable? To love when it costs me? God’s Spirit is still calling. The bridge is still standing. The call is still the same.

____________

Lord, help me walk forward with courage. Let my faith carry me across the bridges You put in my path. Give me boldness to speak justice, strength to love the unlovable, and the heart to follow You without hesitation. Amen.

BDD