In 1962 in Montgomery, Alabama, a young, unknown Baptist preacher came home to find a large crowd gathered in the front of his house, which had just been bombed.
He ran inside to see if his wife and daughter had survived. He found they were unharmed. He comforted them before going outside to the large, angry crowd waiting to see what would happen next.
They had gathered with chains and weapons to retaliate against the white community for such a despicable deed. He told them there would be no retaliation, saying “Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to forgive those who persecute us. Now go home!” Thus began the legacy of an amazing man with a unique spirit, Martin Luther King, Jr.
What King did on that occasion wasn’t natural. It likely wasn’t what many of us would first think to do in response to such a terrible wrong done to us. But the ability to forgive our enemies who have wronged us in some way is often beyond our natural ability, but it is the Spirit of Jesus. It is true Christianity. It is a power available to all of us, and it can change the world.