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How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.

How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow.

How long? Not long, because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

How long? Not long, 'cause mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpets that shall never call retreat. He is lifting up the hearts of man before His judgment seat. O, be swift, my soul, to answer him. Be jubilant, my feet. Our God is marching on.

For Martin Luther King, Jr., the long view meant remembering that no matter how things appear at any given moment, God reigns. In the end, only God himself truly knows the long view of history. We are simply asked to trust him, and to act faithfully on what he has revealed to us in the short view.

That is the pattern not only of the prophets, but of all history. In the Garden of Eden, God with his long view could foresee the drastic consequences of human disobedience: the devastation of creation, the loss of paradise, the plague of human evil. Adam and Eve had only the short view: a simple command not to eat the fruit.

A true prophet reminds us of both. The prophet calls us to daily acts of obedience and faithfulness, regardless of personal cost, regardless of whether we feel successful or rewarded. Build the temple, resist evil, encourage good, love your enemy, tear down walls of division, keep pure. And the prophet also reminds us that no failure, no suffering, no discouragement is too great for the God who stands within the shadows, keeping watch above his own. A prophet who can get across both those messages just may change the world.

While Martin Luther King, Jr., lived on earth, I, his neighbor to the east, did not listen to what he said. I was quick to pounce on his flaws, and slow to recognize my own blind sin. But because he stayed faithful, in the short view, by offering his body as a target but never as a weapon, and in the long view, by holding before us his dream, a dream of a new kingdom of peace and justice and love, he became a prophet for me, the most unlikely of followers.

The real goal, King used to say, was not to defeat the white man, but "to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority. … The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community." And that is what Martin Luther King, Jr., finally set into motion, even in diehard racists like me.

This article originally appeared in the January 15, 1990 issue of Christianity Today.

Philip Yancey is Editor at Large of Christianity Today and author of several bestselling books. His latest is The Bible Jesus Read . Zondervan).

See today's other articles celebrating Martin Luther King Day:

Martin Luther King, Jr.: A History | No Christian played a more prominent role in the century's most significant social justice movement than Martin Luther King, Jr.

The March to Montgomery | Christianity Today's coverage of King's historic voting rights march, from our April 9, 1965 issue

Catching Up With a Dream | Evangelicals and Race 30 Years After the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr."

Yahoo!'s Full Coverage of Martin Luther King Day includes links to news stories, audio and video archives, opinion pieces, and the best Martin Luther King Web sites.

See also excellent special areas in Time, Life magazine, and Britannica.com.

Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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