Day 2: Love Is Not Soft

When many people speak about Dr. King, they speak most comfortably about love.

Love, in our collective memory, has been made gentle. Harmless. Easy to admire and easier to misinterpret. It has been framed as patience without urgency, kindness without confrontation, and unity without accountability.

But the love Dr. King wrote about—preached about—lived by—was none of those things.

In his sermons, King presents love not as sentiment, but as discipline. Not as a weakness, but as a strength that must be practiced daily, especially in the face of cruelty, injustice, and indifference. Love, for King, was not passive acceptance of harm. It was an active refusal to become what oppression tries to make of us.

This is where many misunderstand him.

King’s love demanded courage. It demanded self-examination. It demanded sacrifice. It required the kind of moral clarity that insists on justice even when justice disrupts comfort, especially when it does.

To love in the way King describes is to remain human in systems that profit from dehumanization. It is to choose dignity without surrendering truth. It is to believe that transformation is possible—but never guaranteed.

This kind of love is not soft. It is strenuous. And it costs something.

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Today’s Reading

Strength to Love

Initially published in 1963, Strength to Love is a collection of sermons that reveals the spiritual and philosophical foundation of Dr. King’s work. These sermons show how deeply faith informed his understanding of justice—and how love functioned as a moral strategy rather than an emotional reaction.

As you read, listen for how King frames love as action. Notice how often he connects love to responsibility, resistance, and truth-telling. This is not love as comfort. This is love as commitment.

You may choose to read one sermon slowly, or return to a passage that unsettles you. Let it linger.

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Closing Reflection

Reading Strength to Love asks us to reconsider what we mean when we say we believe in love.

Do we mean ease—or endurance? Agreement—or accountability?Peace at any cost—or justice that leads to peace?

Dr. King reminds us that love, when practiced honestly, will challenge us before it consoles us. It will ask us to act, to speak, and to stand—especially when silence would be simpler.

Here at H. WordSmith Reads, we believe that reading is preparation. Today’s reading prepares us not to feel inspired, but to be transformed.

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Writing Invitation

Take a few moments to write about love—but do not write about it as a feeling.

Write about love as an action. As a discipline. As a responsibility.

Begin with this sentence if you’d like: “Love requires me to…”

Write honestly. Write bravely. Write until the definition shifts.

You may keep your writing private or share it with the H. WordSmith Reads community as part of our ongoing reflection.

Tomorrow, we turn toward urgency—and the cost of waiting.