There are seasons in life when you can feel the weight of the mission more than the weight of the realities around you. When that happens, you feel inspired and ready to create real change. Even if nothing is “different” just yet, you know that something is about to flip. On our campuses, the rooms still look the same, the meetings still land on the calendar, the support tickets still pour in, but “something” underneath it all just shifts for your. First it’s in your mind, then it show up in everything you impact. You start noticing how easily “fine” just isn’t good enough, how daily routine was mistaken for success, and how momentum is finally starting to build.
This happens to me every January, except it shows up in a negative way. While I take stock of everything I accomplished, and I also tend to weigh myself down with the things I didn’t do. The things that fell short. It’s only appropriate then, that as I write this, that MLK Jr Day is right upon us. There’s no better example of a man focused on one goal, no matter the circumstance in front of him.
That is why I keep coming back to Dr. King’s words: “We must never allow ourselves to become satisfied with unattained goals. We must always maintain a kind of divine discontent.” This famous quote lands hard for me. It reminds me that complacency can sneak in just in the mundane. It shows up as resignation covered in practicality and lowered expectations disguised as realism. And while the slow habit of accepting what should still bother us is easy to fall into, divine discontent is different. It isn’t impatience for its own sake, it is a steadfast refusal to let the mission shrink just because the path is hard. It is the inner insistence that the work can be better because the people we serve deserve better. It’s acknowledging that our goals aren’t just for ourselves, they are for the benefit of others.
That kind of discontent, if it stays healthy, becomes a source of calm and clarity. It helps you see the gap between what is happening and what should be happening without turning that gap into shame. (And shame is exactly what happens to me when I begin to dwell on areas I fell short or didn’t accomplish my goals.) Divine discontentment keeps your standards anchored to purpose rather than to comfort. It also keeps you honest about the temptation to stop reaching and start doing. There is always a moment when the urgency fades and the appetite for improvement fades with it, but that deep feeling of “not enough yet” is exactly what creates the drive to keep pushing forward. Rev. King reminds us that peace and progress are the same thing.
But there is another side to this… High standards can become paralyzing when the goal feels far away. Shooting for the stars is great, but it’s also overwhelming. In the same way, MLK, Jr. continues with another line of simple, practical wisdom: “If you can’t fly, run; if you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving.” I hear this as permission to stay in motion without waiting for the perfect conditions. Progress is more important. Moving toward the goal is more important. Some days you’ll be able to run, and some days it’ll take every ounce of energy just to do the littlest of tasks. But at the end of the day, you moved closer to the goal. That gives dignity to progress. It reminds us that momentum is what’s most important, not the actual pace. I also often find that the hardest days are also the ones that help me take a fresh look at things in a new light that often opens up the next sprint.
There is something deeply humbling about that. We often get discouraged when we only recognize progress in big, dramatic leaps, especially where the list of what could be improved is always longer than the list of what has been completed. Dr. King reminds us to keeps the heart engaged in the long road. In doing so, it turns faithfulness into something we can practice on the ordinary days when we don’t have the energy for grand leaps. He reminds us that one honest step forward is just as valuable.
The truth is, once you have momentum, it’s easy to keep going. The hard part is getting started. “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase,” notes Rev. King. Leadership often demands faith, before we feel ready to move. He speaks to the moments when we know the direction to go and we know the goal we want to achieve, but not the full route it’ll actually take to get there. And to be honest, every big goal will require realignment along the way. It’s never a straight path. Faith speaks to the decisions we make with incomplete information, the moments when we have to act while still learning, and the times we commit to a path without being able to promise exactly how it will unfold. Faith, in this sense, is a choice to begin anyway because the mission is more important.
So much of the weight we carry is unseen until it fails. When things go well, the best outcome is often silence, because “of course” it was supposed to be that way. This can make it difficult to know whether the work is truly finished or simply unnoticed. But Dr. King reminds us that the staircase is rarely visible in full. You see the next step, you take it, and only then does the next step come into view. MLK, Jr. invites us to a life of steady progress that does not depend on certainty. It invites action that is guided by purpose instead of delayed by fear of failure or the unknown.
When I put these wise words in the center of my thinking, I feel inspired. “Divine discontent” keeps the mission honest. “Keep moving” keeps the work alive. “Take the first step” keeps the heart from waiting for perfect clarity. And when the days feel heavy, when the effort feels like it is blending into the background, these words bring me back to what this work really is… It is a commitment to make the experience better, to protect the moments that matter, and to keep serving with care even when the path is still unfolding.
