What Do You Mean by Justice?

It seems most folks strive to live or act justly.. Yet seeking justice is a path many folks stumble over. What is it about justice that strikes a chord in many people’s hearts and minds, and at the same time leads many to act unjustly. From listening to people’s stories at home and across the globe, I've found defining what it means to act with justice broad in its interpretation and its outcomes.

For simplicity sake, let’s say to be just is to act fairly with compassion, doing the right thing (hmm) and following God’s lead.  What comes to your mind?   Any of these questions sound familiar?   
Why is there so much injustice in the world?   
And what does doing the ‘right thing’ mean?   
How can we help people in other countries when we can’t manage our own?                                                                                                   
Then where do we go to find a true definition of justice to cover our vast field of human diversity?  

I found myself this week reflecting on verses from the long and quite passionate Book of Isaiah. Isaiah covers much of Israel's history before, during, and after the exile. It also covers a broad range of God's frightening words of judgment and comforting words of promise. While the writings condemn complacency and the failure to act with justice for the poor, Isaiah also portrays God as both a powerful Creator and a Gentle Comforter, something like an earthly mother. This is a God who seeks to restore people who will act with justice for all humankind.

So can we say that true justice is loving, respecting, and treating our neighbors (near and far) as we would ourselves; compassionately, intelligently, with humility, by God’s grace and wisdom.  Then what is it that disables us from living justly?  Through conversations, here are three consistent detours which seem to block the way: fear, the struggle for forgiveness, and apathy.

Some thoughts to reflect on…

Fear: I have found courage to be the act of moving forward in the face of fear. There’s a magnet on my fridge which reads, ‘If you want God to lead, you better move your feet’. Our Creator can be the greatest cheerleader anytime we move through fear or uncertainty.

The Struggle for Forgiveness: Seeking to act justly with lack of forgiveness in our hearts may be a contradiction in itself.  How can we envision a fair outcome for all, where anger or hurt reside? Not an easy road, this is often a repetitive one in many people’s lives. A couple of thoughts come to mind. One we’ve heard before; how do we seek God’s forgiveness if we cannot forgive another. Where we struggle to forgive, just as the Holy Spirit can intercede in our prayers, this same Spirit can be our reliable champion.  Forgiveness can take place!

A second thought to chew on: We’ve heard that to forgive does not mean to forget. Perhaps forgiving also means ‘giving up the hope that the past could be different than it was’. To live with unforgiveness keeps us stuck in the past and can fog our lens when it comes to acting for justice.

Apathy often comes from a sense of entitlement, depression or feeling overwhelmed. One of the most effective means of moving through this wall is to visit or learn about adults or children struggling to stay alive. It can also help to seek out the company of another compassionate person.


More to come on Friday in part 2 of this blog.....

In the meantime, Shalom,

Susan