As I sit here, warm and comfortable in my bed in an apartment I can pay for with (relative) ease, with a kitchen stocked full of food, I can't help but to be grateful. My mind drifts and I think about the millions of people around this world who have never known this comfort that I feel. The title of this update comes from the ever popular Micah 6:8. The full verse is this:
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Doing what is good and doing what the Lord requires. If these aren't two very good goals to strive to attain, I don't know what is. I know I am not always the best at these three principles, but I can't help but imagine how much better our world would be if we all tried just a little harder.
Since coming to Atlanta, social justice has become not only a prevalent topic of conversation in the classroom/among my peers, but also in my own life. If you've read any of my posts, you've read some of my frustrations with wanting to be able to do more and further God's kingdom...and how do I do that? Well maybe all it takes is a little doing of justice, loving of kindness, and walking in humility with a God that is more just, loving, and powerful than I dare try to express.
I realize living out this verse is much easier said than done. For some, that may mean they don't necessarily believe in "social justice"...but for me, it means I don't feel capable. But here is what I do know: I know that oppression is one of the nastiest afflictions our world faces; I know that any type of inequality is a type of injustice; I know that God created all people; and I also know God loves all people...so how dare we not follow suit? Until someone proves to me that there is reason to do otherwise, I will love, fight, and stand up for the oppressed. Because, as Desmond Tutu says, "if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor" and I refuse to be considered someone who prevents another human being, another creation of God, from feeling loved and cared for.
Wonderful God of all (black, white, male, female, gay, straight, young, old, tall, short) creation, Enable me to further justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with you. It is not always easy, but I thank you for that. Enable those, too, who are oppressed. Strengthen them to hold on long enough to see love...if not from the entire world, at least from one person. Amen.
