Lent 2025 Day 37

Howard Thurman, Mystic and Theologian
Matthew 5:14-16 | Psalm 31:9-16
 
Howard Thurman (1899–1981) was a mystic, theologian, pastor, and mentor to a generation of civil rights leaders—including Martin Luther King Jr. As a spiritual architect of the nonviolent movement, Thurman’s legacy is both profound and quiet. He was not a headline-maker, but a soul-shaper. His writings, especially Jesus and the Disinherited, became a blueprint for Black resistance rooted in dignity, love, and interior strength.

Born in segregated Daytona, Florida, Thurman knew the wounds of racism firsthand. And yet, he believed deeply in the dignity of every human being. He sought a spiritual foundation that could endure and transform suffering—not through retaliation, but through love. He traveled to India to meet Gandhi and brought back a theology of nonviolence grounded in the life of Jesus—particularly the Jesus who suffered with the disinherited.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus tells his followers they are the light of the world. Not because of power or privilege, but because of presence—because they live in truth, in hope, and in love. Thurman understood that light is not always bright or loud. Sometimes it is soft. Sometimes it flickers. Sometimes it is hidden under the weight of sorrow. But still, it shines. His contemplative life, marked by silence and solitude, shows us that inner transformation fuels outer change.

Psalm 31 echoes with deep anguish—distress, grief, isolation. Thurman did not shy away from this emotional terrain. He knew the shadows intimately. His theology was not triumphalist but tender. In his quiet, persistent way, he helped people find their way back to God when the world had tried to strip them of their light. “My times are in your hand,” says the psalmist. Thurman believed that even in suffering, we are held. Even in silence, God speaks.

During Lent, we often journey into wilderness and darkness. Thurman reminds us that this season is not about denying the pain, but about sitting with it long enough to find its transformation. It is about becoming a light—not a spotlight, but a lantern for the path. His spirituality teaches us that the inner life is not an escape from the world but the source of resilience within it.

Thurman’s life calls us to reclaim stillness as strength, to tend the inner fire, and to believe that a soul anchored in God can withstand any storm. His light continues to shine, not in spectacle, but in the steady glow of love.

Reflection:

• What does it mean for you to be a light in the world? 
• Where are you feeling distressed or hidden—and how might God be meeting you there? 
• How can silence, prayer, or contemplation help you shine from the inside out? 

Breath Prayer: Inhale: My light is Yours… Exhale: My times are in Your hand.

May this Lenten season lead us into the deep quiet where light is born, and from which healing and justice arise.

Amen.