Today, many people celebrate the life and actions of Martin Luther King Jr. They often talk about his story as if he always knew how things would turn out. As if courage came naturally and the path was crystal clear.

It wasn’t.

In 1955, King was just 26 years old, a young pastor with a family, when he was asked to help lead what became the Montgomery Bus Boycott. There was no blueprint and no guarantee it would work. And very quickly, the cost became personal. Threatening phone calls. Warnings that his home could be bombed with his family inside.

One night, King sat alone at his kitchen table and seriously considered stepping away. Later, he wrote that he didn’t suddenly gain clarity or confidence. He prayed for strength. Not to see the whole staircase, but to take the next appropriate step. Just the next one. That moment would later give rise to one of his most well-known lines: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

And the next morning, he took one step and kept going.

That’s what faith actually looks like. Not the absence of fear or concern. Faith is choosing to move forward when the outcome is unclear and the cost is real.

Most of us aren’t being asked to make decisions with historic consequences. But life still requires faith. To start the thing, to make the call, to get involved or to place trust in something bigger than yourself.

It takes courage and conviction to say yes without knowing exactly how it ends. So just for today, have faith.

Take the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. You don’t need to see the top. You just need to take the next step.

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