true justice
Justice is necessarily costly. For if it were easy, then would not the world be entirely different? Justice is ultimately meaningless unless it is a holistic justice, unless it is shalom. And this type of justice is the most costly: restoration among created things and with the Creator. For the cost of true justice is following after the Creator.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:57-62 (ESV)
"The man on the throne in heaven is a dark-skinned, Aramaic-speaking “foreigner” who is probably not all that impressed by chants of “Make America great again.”"
— Russell Moore
(Source: The New York Times)
four zeros
Four. Followed by four zeros.Over 40,000 suicides happen in the US each year. And so many questions come with that. The economy? Disenfranchisement? Social pressure? Social media? Yet the underlying reality remains – to take one own’s life means that there is a deep dissatisfaction that seems to have no way out besides death.
And we all experience dissatisfaction, yet so many of us have different coping mechanisms – relationships, pleasure, false gods. But in the end, do we not find ourselves in the same position? For all worldly sources of satisfaction, even universal sources are finite, bound, and will come to an end.
What hope is there but Christ? I pray that the refreshing, ultimately satisfying drink of the blood of Christ sustain me, sustain you, sustain us until His Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
(Source: The New York Times)
nations: ecuador
pray
- the earthquake: survivors, to receive peace and support physically and emotionally; for the church to display transformative love; for the souls of the lost, that the Lord may have mercy
- the economy: to grow from dependence on oil to leveraging the creative abilities of the people; to value people over profit
- the government: to avoid corruption and not persecute those who would speak in opposition, but rather seek to understand in love
- the church: to preach the gospel, calling people to repentance, following Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives and not living nominally; for missionaries to be sent across the world
- the campus: growth in the good news and Christ-like leadership present
- the land: care of Creation and resources, fighting against exploitation of natural resources while seeking to maintain the forest, mountains, and water
- “sumak kawkay”: for the people of Ecuador to live “the good life” (phrase in Quechua, the most widespread indigeneous language), in harmony with one another, the land, and the Creator
sources
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-36070407
[2] https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/ecuador
[3] https://www.om.org/en/country-profile/ecuador
[4] https://www.ifesworld.org/en/regions/ecuador
[5] https://www.anywhereecuador.com/travel-guide/environmental-issues
[6] https://www.pachamama.org/sumak-kawsay
[pic#1] https://www.yanapumaspanish.org/images/study-travel/ecuador1.jpg
[pic#2] https://isandropacheco.com/img/post/mis-notas/ecuador-siete-dias-en-quito/cotopaxi-desde-quito.jpg
If you would like to give to support the efforts to help the affected people in Ecuador, I suggest checking out World Vision.
justice for the nations
How do we start? How do we even begin to describe a country we have no connection to? How do we learn about the history and care about the land, the culture, the people who inhabit the space?
The picture will be incomplete, but the burden of our interconnected world means that we have no excuse upon the day of the Lord when we are asked, “why did you not pray and care for your brothers and sisters on the other side of the world?”
“I was too busy finding the right filter for my Instagram.”
5 minutes of praying for a nation, 5 minutes of praying for God’s Kingdom to come. That’s a way to start.
"Joy and terror were the first responses to the resurrection, it seems to always be the response when God is doing a new thing."
— Charlene Brown
(Source: twitter.com)
good intentions & greed
A wise saying, attributed to anonymous, rephrased:
There are very few people who intentionally do evil; most people believe in their good intentions.
I don’t think Hitler thought he was doing something evil. I don’t think Pullman thought he was being authoritarian. I don’t think ISIS thinks that they are morally reprehensible. This is the crazy thing about defining good for ourselves – without a moral standard, everything is good.
Yet the moment that we think, we are the only ones who understand and that our decisions, however harsh, are for the best of the other – we have made ourselves God. Or a parent.
We have defined good for the good of others but all we’re really doing is practicing greed.
Greed to pad our own pockets. Greed to fill our emotions with feeling right. Greed to consume the energy, thoughts, and life of another for our own purposes.
Let us not be so obsessed with perfection to discard the messy world that God saw and said was good.
"Perchance he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill as that he knows not it tolls for him. And perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does, belongs to all.
…
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII (John Donne)
(Source: luminarium.org)
freedom isn’t enough
But to walk and flourish in freedom.
An alcoholic can have 1000 days of being sober, and the next day freedom means nothing in front of an empty bottle. Freedom without the walk and flourish is like a man being released from prison only to relapse. To simply set a man free from a system of slavery, wipe your hands, pat yourself on the back and say “good job” – is not love.
The Good Samaritan doesn’t pass over the victimized man, but recognizes the trauma. He doesn’t simply say, “let me go get some help.” He takes care of the unjustly persecuted man man by tending to wounds and bringing him back into society. Freedom for the victim requires coming back into society.
To walk free requires reintegration.
The Good Samaritan goes another step. He pays the innkeeper without any desire for a return. He partners in the restoration of injustice by paying back even though he did not personally participate in the act of injustice. He understood this: that man is bound to every other man – for if one suffers, we all suffer.
This is love. For Christ was crucified and resurrected not that we might pay Him back, but because He loved us.
To flourish requires reparation.
(Source: biblegateway.com)
tribute to trayvon
Trayvon,
You never knew me, and I never knew you; we lived in completely separate universes. But, I wish I could say “thanks” and “I’m sorry” to you.
When you were shot and killed, my former self thought nothing of it – “just another black man killed.” And when the murderer stood on trial, I defended his actions as self-defense while talking about the tragic nature of the events. But God opened up my eyes and ears to your crucifixion. I saw that you were a child, a teenager, a kid younger than me. I understood the fear that you felt. And I broke down at the realization of my personal brokenness and that of the world around that would celebrate your passing instead of mourning.
I will not forget your sacrifice, that your death was not in vain, that you did not pass into the night to be forgotten. I’m sorry that I didn’t care about you sooner. I’m sorry that I didn’t open my eyes and ears sooner. I’m sorry that it took you being killed for me to understand.
My former self would be appalled at the thought, at the comparison that your suffering, your death was martyrdom. On this Good Friday, as I remember the death of the Savior that conquered death and brought new life, I also remember yours and my own salvation that has been impacted by your death. Thank you for bringing me closer to our Redeemer.
I say a prayer for you, brother. Pray for me.