I have been on this justice kick for a while now. I've been reading books, scouring the bible, and educating myself on current social justice issues around the globe. It is clear to me that God is a God of justice.
During this time I have found my prayers circling this basic thought process that God is someone to be reckoned with, that I am to strive with Him, pleading for justice and change and true love and truth to rise up amidst hopelessness and the terrors of our day. As much as persistent prayer is biblical, I felt like my prayers and my motives were lacking something. Something was missing somewhere on my radar and I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
It wasn't until a conversation over a beer in a crowded restaurant the other night that it dawned on me via the insight and wisdom from a very dear friend. Carrie is one of the people in my life that shares this passion for social and biblical justice. And because she's been at this longer than I have I am thankful to the bottom of my heart to have her in my life to help guide me.
As we sipped on our beers, we were marveling at the sermons at church as of late and feeling grateful that truth is being spoken in regards to love and justice (see my last blog). As we talked, Carrie brought up a book that she had recently read and a point the author made that turned our conversation upside down for a bit.
The thought was this: unless you fully understand and set your foundation on how much God ACTUALLY loves YOU as an individual (through the gift of Christ's example and sacrifice), you cannot genuinely love others nor can you be effective in doing justice. At least not for very long.
This is not to say that those doing justice who do not know God cannot do any good, but those who do not rest on His foundation and purpose to know His love personally will not be able to last in fervor of service and pure motive. Their "cup" will run out because it is not being continually filled and nourished with God's love in order that love flows out of their life to properly "do justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless and plead the widow's cause". (And sorry to use such an overused "Christian-y" metaphor, it drives me nuts, but the "cup" makes sense.)
We (at least for Carrie and I) have always heard as we grew up in the church that if you love God, you must love others. But it seems natural and biblical that we should know He first loved us. Unless we know with full assurance and seek out how much God loves us, where will our motives come from? And how quickly will our perseverance run out if we are not resting on that love?
This is hard for me to grasp in some ways because I see many American Christians who take, take, take, receive, receive, receive, and horde, horde, horde. It seems it's therapeutic to be a Christian for so many. It fulfills this surface need to believe in something, gives us hope, forgives our sins and makes us feel like we're a better person for being "religious" or by having "faith". However, in this need to fulfill self we have forgotten to turn around and genuinely give the grace so lavished upon us to our fellow man in need (whether it is spiritual or physical). When I began to notice what was happening around me I felt my own heart go to the extreme of give, give, give. Give your heart, your life, your excess, give out of no excess by faith...and I forgot to continue truly receiving God's love as my source and ability to give and do justice. I felt guilty (and I kid you not) for reading Psalms as a means to draw closer to God. It may sound asinine, but it's true.
A matter of months ago I began to feel guilty for accepting this love and for feeling so good about God's grace and love toward me when I constantly have thoughts in the back of my mind about injustice and the suffering of others in this world. However, it seems I went to the other extreme, one which would lead me down a dead end road of complete exhaustion and more than likely bitterness and hopelessness.
It seems to me that my prayers will shift in content and direction just a few degrees now. The time I spend reading the bible will begin to contain a little bit more reading so that I begin to seek God's love not only for others, but also for my own heart. Because God's love is unending, and that is the foundation upon which I need to stand.
