There are some things too important not to post about, and I think this falls under that chategory.
Yesterday I went to my school's Bible Study and there were four speakers there from YWAM- Youth With A Mission. I was expecting the usual "you should all get up right now and fly to Africa" speech, but that's not what we got. Instead we got a talk on justice. They began with a story about a pastor who went through the Bible and physically cut out all the verses that talk about helping the poor and needy. The result was a torn and tattered volume, worthless by most people's standards. He went on to say that this was the American Bible- that we who have everything are blind to the concept of justice.
And suddenly this made a lot of sense to me, because it's true that you don't realize how unfair something is until you get the short end of the stick.
And furthurmore, it's mindblowing to realize that God has so much to say about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. I don't know why I never noticed that before. Somehow, my rich-white-American mindset told me, "Well, God puts everyone in the situations they are in by His soverign good will, so it's not really my buisness anyway." And yet, if something happened to me tomorrow to leave me homeless, I would pray very hard that God would take me out of that situation. So why am I okay with that happening to others, just because I don't know them personally?
It's interesting that among all the verses I can think of about poverty in the Bible, most of them have to do with exorting us to help the poor and needy. Which tells me it's not just that God hates poverty because it's not fair, but he hates that those who can do something about it don't. THAT'S the part that's not fair. The unjustice of it is mind-blowing, when you think about how much we really have.
Another area this relates to is that of global evangalism... they gave a crazy statistic saying that only about two percent of all missionaries go to areas where the gospel has never been preached before. And there are a lot of areas like that. That seems even more unfair than people not having food... especially considering the amount of people who keep the gospel to themselves for no good reason.
So for once, more than being inspired to run off to the other side of the world, I actually feel convicted about the way I'm living now. Because of course we all know how far a very small bit of money will go in places where even water is scarce. And yet I have to eat five dollar salads when I get even the tinyest bit hungry at school. And buy new clothes when I don't like the old ones anymore. And do something different with my hair every couple of months. There's just so many ridiculous things that we Americans spend money on.
And not only that, I'm hugely, hugely convicted about the amount I complain. If anything makes God's character of Justice cringe it has got to be hearing me whine about my incredibly easy life. The people there from YWAM, who had traveled around to many third world countries, all vehemently agreed that most people who had close to nothing were much happier than we Americans are.
But it's not just about apriciating the good things God has chosen to give me, it's more like... well, everyone has their own trials and problems they have to deal with, and God gives us strength according to our need. I just suddenly find it very pathetic that God is having to pamper me by giving me the strength to actually go to class today... comparatively, it's so easy! I don't feel like I can ever really make a difference so long as I'm hung up on rich-white-American problems. If that makes any sense.
I would really like to learn to be content with less. I would like to inspire other people to do the same, if at all possible. One, because it would give us more money to give to those who really need it. Two, because it would teach us not to complain and to see the bigger picture. Three, because it would make us more ready and able to help those who have much, much less to begin with. And ultimately, because all of this would be glorifying to God in his infinite, unfathomable justice. This ideal is just that, an ideal- and while the head knowledge has finally reached the heart, it's miles and miles away from translating into actions. Still, it's a battle I- and all Americans, really- NEED to be fighting.
"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever looses his life for My sake will save it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?" Luke 9:23-25
So... I typed out this long deep comment and it didn't get published.... -8/
ReplyDeleteWhy does technology not want us to communicate??? Hmmm..... -8D
Yeah... it's kind of starting to weird me out, actually... :-P
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry your comment was lost! Thanks for putting all that time into it anyway. :-)
I guess I'm confused about the missionaries' definition of "injustice." It is not deserved that we have so much - that is true. But no one DESERVES it. So it's injustice for anyone to have anything, but eternal punishment in Hell (and I do not say that glibbly). I do not believe that it is "unjust" for some people to have more materialy than others. (Karl Marx made that argument plenty ;-))As I think about it, I really don't understand how justice plays into the arguement. Explanation, por favor?
ReplyDeleteHOWEVER, your points about compassion, taking up the cross of Christ, complaining less and being content with more are very convicting. Thank you for being a prod to my conscience. Just yesterday, I was reading a commentary on 1 Corinthians 13, and it made the point that Paul describes love, not with adjectives and pictoral nouns, but with verbs. Love is action! Praise the Lord that His love of action provided a way that even we spoiled, thankless, discontent Americans might be forgiven and saved from all our sins and regenerated, and given the privilege to in some small way live the love of God towards others.
I <3 this post. I wish Blogger had a "like" button for posts!
ReplyDeleteAnd that's an interesting point....what exactly does justice have to do with it? I'm a little tired right now so whatever I say in this comment is just off the top of my head.
I'm not sure I would use the word justice - it seems to me that it's being used rather broadly here and I don't think it's such a broad term. However, Emily may be able to clear things up because she was there and she wrote the post. :)
But from what I've seen, a lot of the people who need help (like in third world countries) are under an unjust government, or are being oppressed by individuals who treat them unfairly. Yes, according to God's justice we all deserve only hell, so for us as humans to have anything here is a matter of grace and has nothing to do with fairness.
That being said, God has given us what we have, and we're expected to be responsible and generous with it, treating it not as our own, but doing what God wants with it. In my mind, it's kind of like there is a standard of moral justice, or fairness, that we are expected to adhere to in this world, because it reflects God's morals and His grace and love for us. People who don't show this morality, and oppress others under them, are acting without justice, and clearly displease God.
It's not always direct, but generally the reason people barely have enough food from day to day is because they're under some form of oppression like this. So I guess in that sense, it is a matter of justice.
So justice in this sense is alignment in our human matters with God's heart, bringing his morals and values to our world as much as possible. Justice between us and God, however, is much scarier, and praise the Lord for his grace, because we never did a thing to earn it. But I think there are two different things here - one is our vertical relationship to God, and the other is our horizontal relationship to people. In the first matter, our case is hopeless. In the second case, we're expected to align our morality with God and so justice (in the commandments God has given us to be "just") is not tolerating sin and oppression when there is something we can do about it. God expects us to love and care for His people the way He would.
And luckily we can look at this matter from many sides. A lifestyle change that enables us to send money where it's most needed is fantastic - but I think it's more an act of mercy than justice. I mean, it's kind of treating just the symptoms of the disease if you don't also go after the people who are perpetrating the injustice. An example foremost in my mind is the Dalit (or Untouchable) people in India. Over 300 million people in one country are all under severe oppression. Helping them by giving them food and clothes is a great thing to do, and there are lots of organizations committed to that. But that is more an act of mercy than justice, because it is alleviating pain caused by injustice, and not attacking the injustice itself (again, however, it's still a very good and necessary thing to do and should not be discounted). But there are also organizations who are involved with the government, working from a social and legal direction, attacking the heart of the issue, and that is entirely a matter of justice.
Ok....I hope that all made sense! I'm open to questions and I may have to think it through some more myself. :)
This is kind of a funny coincidence, because its pretty much what we went over a couple of weeks ago in Bible study, like to the letter.
ReplyDeleteI agree its ridiculous how little we help other people sometimes. I've been meaning for a few years now to have a Christmas where I spend most of the day volunteering to help out the poor and homeless. Hasn't happened yet, but its something I want to do. I'm always happy when I do volunteer work for the less fortunate. :D
That's crazy Matt, I love it when the same message keeps showing up... makes me think there's got to be something more to it than coincidence. :-)
ReplyDeleteJulie, that's a good point, and I agree that it's not exactly unjust to have more than someone else. Maybe they were talking more about the injustices such as rape, murder, slavery, child labor, etc, rather than the fact that some people have less.
So I guess you could say there are too issues here- the issue of speaking out and moving against injustice and the issue of feeding the poor and needy. I realize this post was hastily constructed and could be much more potently worded- I would love to take the time to write a full article on the subject sometime with scriptures and examples from real life!
But yeah, you're right, I see the inconsistency there.
Okay, Verya, I just paused in typing this comment and read yours, and I can see you've broken it down in about the same way. And you've taken it even furthur... I love what you have to say, especially about the difference between acts of mercy and acts of justice. I believe that's what the missionaries may have been trying to get at- that most of the poverty and horrible things going on in the world are totally avoidable, if people would just get up and do something about it. And even if we can't physically do it ourselves, we can help that cause by contributing in money to those who are trying. Also, we can't let the people starve until we get the corrupt governments resolved... so I guess it's important to ballance mercy and justice, just as our Creator does.
Very interesting... lots to think about!!
I can't believe I just spelled "two" as "too."
ReplyDelete*headdesk*
That's a very helpful explanation, Vera and Emily. I agree that we ought to fight injustice where we can and when we see it, and in the spheres where God has placed us. Furthermore, sometimes injustices against the poor result from or are agrivated by poverty - and we see again and again throughout the Bible, OT and NT, that God wishes for us to love the poor and give to the poor "who are always with us." God has given this responsibiltiy to the church (not the government ;-)) - What a privilege we as the people of God so often forget/neglect! As a man in my church often says, "Don't Forget to Remember": "Remember the prisoners as if chained with them - those who are mistreated - since you yourselves are in the body also." Hebrews 13:3.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your explanations.
Wow.
ReplyDeleteYou all have come up with a ton of really good points. I think we often forget about the people in rich countries, who are living fine, but are completely blind, and completely lost. There is so much we can do for the people just in our own neighborhood.
Thanks for the great post Emily!
Yes Katie, that is also a very good point. Personally, the idea of dealing with these people who have so much and are still stony and selfish with the truth they have been given is much more discouraging than dealing with the social injustices of the world- but the need is every bit as great!! I know many people who view themselves as missionaries to America, and that's awesome too.
ReplyDeleteMNM dear, I just want to say thank you for keeping the deep discussions going here on the blog! Most all of my posts these days are just what's happening in my life (lol, mostly me complaining about life), but it really means a lot to me to be able to think through and write out the thoughts on issues like this. I know we used to do it like 24/7 on all our blogs, and honestly that helped me sort out so much of what I do and don't believe when I was first entering the teenage years and starting to figure all that stuff out. Obviously I'm not done (and never will be) figuring it out, but I think it's (1) really important and (2) such a blessing that we can all do this together as good friends, rather than kind of floating along and just starting to think about a lot of these issues for the first time when our crazy liberal college professors bring it up. So yeah....thank you for continually posting your deep thoughts and encouraging the conversation to continue!
ReplyDelete<3 <3 <3