Jessica Nicholas's Blog, page 2

God's Grief

A question that stuck with me when I first stared reading about justice in the Bible was: Why does God take justice and injustice so seriously? Is He like a law-obsessed ruler sitting on His far away throne, enjoying throwing lightening bolts at particularly sinful people? That fit the picture I had of Him when I was growing up. But it didn't explain His passion for justice I saw in the Bible, one that seemed profoundly tied to people and relationships. 

Let’s go back to the beginning, to what I think is the most important part of thinking about justice: God’s own heart.

Within one generation of God making His good Creation, the first murder takes place- Cain killing Abel in a fit. It doesn't take long for humans to really mess everything up. A few generations after that, Noah was born into a world marked with corruption and violence. It didn’t take long to go from one single act of sin to: “the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence [chamas] (Gen 6:6b, ESV).” Now imagine what that must be like for God to experience- He created a perfect world, made man to cultivate His perfect earth, and these humans that He made in His own image were now hurting each other. It says that:

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Gen 6:5-6, ESV)

What’s in man’s hearts? Unending evil thoughts. And what happened in God’s heart as a response? Grief.

This is the only emotion that’s attributed to God in the whole book of Genesis- and it is pain.[1]

God doesn't say that He's angry at humanity for their sin, or frustrated that He's going to have to have to develop a new plan to redeem it all. Instead, He's grieved over the impact that sin has on His children. Violence, corruption, evil, injustice, suffering- it grieves God deeply. Again and again in the Old Testament, we see that God intentionally connects His own heart to humanity, and that humanity’s condition affects Him deeply.[2] When the poor and oppressed cry out, He listens and acts (Exo. 3:9, 22:22, Deut 26:12, Ps. 12:5, 10:17, 22:24, 69:33, 102:17, Job 34:28).

I used to think that injustice was wrong because of some impersonal, abstract reason, like it was a problem because it broke the “law and order” of a society. And that fit in well with  my picture of a distant, law-obsessed ruler on a heavenly throne clutching lightning bolts. But, the more I've read the Bible, the more my perspective has changed. God's reasons for hating injustice are personal. They reflect His heart as a loving Father. Rabbi Abraham Joseph Heschel puts it this way:

“An act of injustice is condemned, not because the law is broken, but because a person has been hurt. What is the image of a person? A person is a being whose anguish may reach the heart of God.”[3]

This story of Noah’s generation brings up an important question in Judaism. God totally wiped out Noah’s generation in response to the evil and violence they did to each other. But a few generations after Noah, another generation comes along and unites to revolt against God by building a tower to reach to heaven. His response to their revolt is comparatively mild. He confused their language, and they scattered across the earth. Which one is worse, the sins of the generation of the Flood- when they were guilty of violence and corruption, but didn’t revolt against God- or the sins of the generation of the Tower of Babel- when they revolted against God but were unified and peaceful as a people?

One answer in Jewish literature puts it this way: “The punishment of the generation of the flood was to be completely wiped out, while the punishment of the generation of the Tower of Babel was to be dispersed across the earth. Why was the generation of the Flood utterly destroyed, but not the generation of the Tower? Because the generation of the Flood were consumed by robbery and violence, while amongst the generation of the Tower, love prevailed.”[4] Why might this be? If you are a parent, you know that you can take a lot of rough stuff if it’s against you personally. But if someone messes with your kids, especially with violence, then your response is totally different. Messing with you personally is bad, but messing with your kid is unacceptable for a father’s and mother’s heart.

How would you feel if you were a parent, and someone was building a relationship with you and treated you well, but then beat on your kids? Or took away their rights? Or ignored them when they hurting and in need? Imagine your friend coming over to spend time with you, but on their way inside, they stepped over your bleeding child crying on the threshold of your house. In they walk with a big smile on their face, ready to chat- while you can still clearly hear your kid's screams in the background. How would you feel about your relationship with that person?

You know as a parent how your children are such an important part of you and your heart is so intertwined with them, so if someone hurts them, no matter how great they are to you, your relationship won’t work. There’s no way you can separate how they treat you with how they treat your kids. That picture makes it pretty clear why God, who designed us to live in relationship, wants when our relationships are made right with Him to be reflected in how we live with and respond to His other children.

How many times have you heard the argument that there must not be a God because how could he allow so much injustice and suffering in the world? Well, look at the Bible. It clearly shows a God who loves justice and righteousness, and hates evil and injustice. And all of that is a reflection of how much He values and cares for human life. 

 

 

[1] Goldingay, John. Key Questions about Christian Faith: Old Testament Answers. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010. P. 16

[2] Keller, Timothy. Walking with God through Pain and Suffering. New York City: Dutton, 2013.

[3] Heschel, Abraham Joshua. The Prophets.

[4] Midrash Rabbah

 

Our Parents Ate Sour Grapes

Christopher Columbus took girls as young as nine as sex slaves, once writing to a friend that “there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand.”[1] The White House in Washington DC was built using slave labor. Innocent Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps (a nice way of saying "wrongfully imprisoned") during World War II. Under pressure from the United Fruit Company who to keep their monopoly on land in Guatemala, the United States helped oust the democratically-elected leader of Guatemala- an event that led to the longest-running civil war in Central America. And sadly, as much as these sound like exaggerated conspiracy theories, they are not.

My own family owned slaves, until their gambling addiction got in the way and they bet away the family plantation in Louisiana. Of course the story my family told everyone was that they abruptly moved to New Mexico “for health reasons.”

When you are looking at the ugly parts of history, you are constantly faced with the reality that there are actual people that commit injustices. It’s easy to get a one-dimensional view of them as awful and evil. We can’t identify with at all. Making them less human makes it easier to imagine how people commit horrible acts.

But another reality often comes up- when we see that our own nation or ancestors were the ones that committed the injustices. Suddenly we are faced with this dilemma. On one hand, we tend to de-humanize all those that commit injustices, while on the other, we put our national heroes and ancestors on pedestals.

When I think of slave owners, I can’t just have a picture in my mind of an evil taskmaster living in sad stories from long ago. The picture is of my own great-great-great grandparents, whose genes I share. Maybe my nose and ears resemble the nose and ears of the person who owned an African slave just a few generations ago. That picture of a sad, unjust history is a picture I’m a part of- in a distant way. Now I have to figure out how to think about those that I admire so much when they participate in the same acts I can’t imagine any good person doing.

To learn about the history of any nation- including God’s chosen nation of Israel – you will be confronted with stories of injustice. How in the world to we wrestle with this? The very people and culture that have shaped us into the people we are today have also made decisions that seem so unjust- and there is probably a legacy of pain and injustice that affect people even today.

The parent’s sour grapes

I have asked God many times how we can address injustices committed by our ancestors. To start to wrestle with this question, let’s look at a passage out of the book of Ezekiel. In it, Ezekiel is giving a message from God to the nation of Israel about how God views injustice across generations:

Then another message came to me from the Lord: “Why do you quote this proverb concerning the land of Israel: ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste’?  As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb anymore in Israel. For all people are mine to judge—both parents and children alike. And this is my rule: The person who sins is the one who will die. (v. 1-4, NLT)

That proverb is a little weird- ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, but their children’s mouths pucker at the taste.” But think about it. The parents make a mistake, they ate sour grapes. But the children are the ones that feel the effect of their action, so their mouths pucker. The next generation would feel the effects instead of the ones that actually did the wrong. This is God saying that Israel should not quote that proverb any longer because now the person that makes the mistake will be the one the feel the effect of it.

The passage goes on to give a description of a hypothetical righteous and just man:

“Suppose a certain man is righteous [saddiq] and does what is just [mishpat] and right [sedeqah]. He does not feast in the mountains before Israel’s idols or worship them. He does not commit adultery or have intercourse with a woman during her menstrual period. He is a merciful creditor, not keeping the items given as security by poor debtors. He does not rob the poor but instead gives food to the hungry and provides clothes for the needy. He grants loans without interest, stays away from injustice, is honest and fair [mishpat] when judging others, and faithfully obeys my decrees and regulations. Anyone who does these things is just and will surely live, says the Sovereign Lord. (v. 5-9)

God is giving a hypothetical description, and shows a clear picture of what doing righteousness and justice would have looked like at that time. This person follows the way of God- is pure in his worship, follows God’s laws. Most of this is focused on how they treat the poor and weak, and how they steward their own food, clothes and money. And this person will reap the fruit of what he sowed- because he sowed in justice and righteousness.

The son’s choice

Now the passage goes on to give this hypothetical righteous man a wicked son. Contrast the picture of a just and righteous life with a description of a wicked life:

 “But suppose that man has a son who grows up to be a robber or murderer and refuses to do what is right [mishpat]. And that son does all the evil things his father would never do—he worships idols on the mountains, commits adultery, oppresses the poor and helpless, steals from debtors by refusing to let them redeem their security, worships idols, commits detestable sins, and lends money at excessive interest. Should such a sinful person live? No! He must die and must take full blame. (v. 10-13)

Again, even though this is a hypothetical description, you can see a clear picture of what an evil life in the sight of God would have looked like: worshipping idols and individuals using their power to hurt the vulnerable in their community. A wicked life was marked by how someone treated the poor and handled their own resources. And this person will feel the full effect of what they did wrong- not their father. The son sowed in wickedness, so he will reap the fruit of his decisions.

The grandson’s choice

So what we just saw was a righteous man with a not-so-good son. The son would take the responsibility for his actions, not his dad. Now, the passage goes on to give a third generation to this hypothetical family:

“But suppose that sinful son, in turn, has a son who sees his father’s wickedness and decides against that kind of life. This son refuses to worship idols on the mountains and does not commit adultery. He does not exploit the poor, but instead is fair to debtors and does not rob them. He gives food to the hungry and provides clothes for the needy. He helps the poor, does not lend money at interest, and obeys all my regulations and decrees. Such a person will not die because of his father’s sins; he will surely live.” (v. 14-17)

No matter what the parents did, the children always have the full freedom to choose what kind of life they are going to lead. When the do so, they will not take on the burden of their parent’s decisions. God looks at the heart and actions of the individual. 

The passage ends with a powerful summary of how he views injustice across generations:

 “‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. (v. 19-20)

The “parents” of our nations have chosen some pretty crazy stuff- racism, sexism, oppression, slavery, wars, and so on. But that doesn’t matter. What does matter is what we choose.

It’s important to remember that we are under a new covenant, and we no longer pay for the effect of sin- it’s all under the blood of Christ. Jesus changes everything, including how we look at injustice. What this passage is showing is that we can look clearly at injustices in the past, and not take on the burden of shame, guilt, and punishment. Our life will be marked by what we sow. No matter what our parents and grandparents did, we get to choose a just and righteous life. 

While the history of this nation includes the choice by my ancestors to run a plantation of slaves, I can choose differently. Part of that choice is seeing the continuing legacy that slavery and its aftermath continue to have on our nation. 

God's justice is focused on righting wrongs and restoration. For us today, doing justice in this generation means something like "Doing Justice=Following the Rules again=Let's move on with our lives as long as we are being Lawful." But doing justice God's way more like "Doing justice=Actively working to restore wholeness =Let's move in to heal, liberate and restore everywhere that injustice has touched."  

So our generation choosing justice doesn't only mean that we go back to following the rules, enjoying our comfortable lives while leaving those most impacted by injustice to deal with the fall-out themselves. God's justice ends when restoration comes- so wherever we see the destruction from injustice by a previous generation, we should actively work until wholeness returns. In the end, the entire community benefits from an environment of peace, wholeness, and justice.

Recording dirty laundry

America, and many other nations, are facing a crisis. Looking at our own past can be paralyzing. Our parents ate sour grapes- way more than we’d like to admit- but what are we supposed to do about it? Can’t we just erase those inconvenient parts from our history books and just talk about the great stuff they did?

In the Bible, God acknowledged that His own chosen people messed up again and again- grinding the face of the poor, crushing the needy, committing extortion and oppression, depriving foreigners of justice, devouring innocent people- and much more. And God not only confronted the injustices in Israel’s history, He made sure they were recorded- so now when we read the Bible thousands of years later, we can see their dirty laundry. 

This points to a challenging, but needed, perspective: There is power in seeing the full picture of history. 

You can even see it with individual leaders. David is remembered as one of the best kings of Israel, and a man after God’s own heart. But we still hear the story of how he committed rape and murder. If David did that today, he’s spend his life in prison.  What an atrocious story to include alongside all the great things that David did.

These "inconveniences" aren’t erased, swept away so that we can admire just the great things that Israel and its leaders did. They are put into the same book where the story of Jesus is told. Because the same nation that Jesus was born into was the same nation that committed those atrocities.

That’s right, included in the same book where we hear the redemptive story of mankind, in that same book the stories of the injustices Israel committed. If any nation needed to be totally perfect, it would have been this one. Yet it was not. And God made a record of it so that thousands of years later we still know that Israel did some pretty bad stuff.

A previous generation committing injustices never disqualifies what God wants to do in this generation. Israel crushed the poor, turned to other gods, enslaved their own people - and none of that disqualified them from seeing the Savior of the world come through their people.

Where do we go from here?

So how do we look at our own nation’s history? Can we only have pride in our history if our forefathers and foremothers were not perfect? How do we have honor for people that at one point built the very nation we enjoy today, yet at the same time committed injustices that we only associate with things only the bad guys would do?

Any nation’s story is a collection of every member. It’s of pain endured, of courage actualized. Of selflessness, hard work, and opportunity- and extreme greed, slavery, and ignorance. And into these messy, beautiful places, this generation has been born.

Honor what previous generations have done. Pull apart any great leaders life, and you will find mistakes- probably some big injustice they committed (King David, anyone?). Their mistakes don’t stop them from being able to build something great.

Look at what happens when a nation or leader’s story is put into the hands of an all-powerful, God full of grace and mercy. Mistakes never disqualify us from being used by God. So why, then, do we feel the need to only record the good parts of someone’s life when writing it in history books? We need to train ourselves to see from God’s perspective, where we can see the story of a murderer and a king, of a nation's atrocities and redemption, and not let one part erase the other. There is power in the full picture of history.

Look at what our national leaders have built, tell the great stories from their lives, and honor what they gave their lives for. But don’t let honoring the good stuff they did do silence the voices of those that also experienced the pain of injustice through their choices. Our voice as a nation is a voice of us all. We can’t ignore the stories of some because it’s too hard and inconvenient. The Bible doesn’t even do that. Our voice is the voice of us all. To leave some out because it’s too hard for us to hear is to loose a piece of ourselves.

In every nation, there are parents that have eaten sour grapes. There is no denying it. But this generation gets to choose what we are going to do. Will we choose justice and righteousness? We won’t get the stomachache. But to do that, we have to acknowledge that there still are places where restoration is needed from the choices that our parents have made. And we should include in our written histories the stories of it all- just and unjust.

 

 

[1] Letter of Christopher Columbus quoted in Documents of West Indian History by Eric Williams, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: PNM, 1963.

[3] Gritsch, Eric W. Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism: Against His Better Judgement. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012. 

Do we really need to read the Bible?

Do we really have to read the Bible to learn about justice?? The Bible is long and complicated. Why can't I just tell everyone in a few sentences what justice is and how everyone should do it? Well, here are a few reasons (and yes, I do firmly believe that we reading whole long book is needed to get the full message) :

Justice and righteousness a key, essential part of the Biblical story: Growing up in my church, there was a general sense that social justice folks had weaker-ish theology and cared less about the Bible. The irony is that there are over two thousand verses that talk about justice and poverty, while other things I was taught that all Christians had to have an opinion about, like the rapture or homosexuality, had less than 10. Justice and righteousness are an essential, key part of the Biblical story.

We need it. Not only are there multiple definitions of "social justice," even plain old "justice" had multiple definitions. And definitions alone can't give values and principles for how to do it, or give models. Thankfully, we Christians have a secret weapon for unity. The Bible can give us the definitions, values, principles, and models that are lacking. No matter how we personally define justice and social justice, we can all look to the Bible to ground us in God's truth. 

Stop being a reaction to a reaction to a reaction of a bad movement.  So much has been done in reaction- in reaction to the Social Gospel movement, in reaction to problems in Capitalism, in reaction to feminism, in reaction to the reaction of the reaction of the reaction to social justice. To get out of a reactionary cycle, which means that everything gets defined in relationship to something that is wrong, we are going to focus on Scripture. No matter where you currently are in your beliefs about social justice or where you land on the political spectrum, we can all move toward something: the justice and righteousness that God loves and Jesus lives out as expressed in Scripture. 

You want the most impactful, unifying message about justice? Here it is.  And when you line up to the Bible, you get lined up to truth and the effect of planting God’s word will always bear fruit. In Isaiah, God says that like the rain doesn’t head back to heaven after it goes to earth, but it is fruitful- producing seed and food. And like the rain:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11, ESV) 

This means that if we want fruit from receiving a message about justice, the best place we can get that message is from Scripture- because it will accomplish everything God intended for us to get with a justice message.  

Old and young can link up. So many genuine, sold-out Christians that were taught by their spiritual and church leaders that social justice was a terrible, scary thing. They saw other social movements manipulate the Bible or use weak theology to justify their political ambitions. Out of a heart for truth and the pure gospel, many older generation Christians (and some current) have rejected social justice out of good motives. For this reason, if we want a unified movement that joins the power in every generation, we need to find a place for all of us to meet. 

The Walnuts & Rice of your Budget

"Economic justice" always sounded like an intimidating phrase to me. In the Old Testament “economic justice” parts, most everything that’s described feels far away from my world. Sweet, I'm not crushing widows or withholding wages from my fieldworkers, that must mean I'm not being economically unjust. Economic justice was something for governments to worry about, so I was good. But that perspective made me miss some key Biblical truths.

When you look at the New Testament teachings around money, God isn’t addressing a nation any longer, but how He talks about money is surprisingly consistent. And money is a frequent topic, both Old and New Testament. It’s mentioned more than prayer, faith, heaven and hell. Something I’ve come to love about looking at social justice topics in the New Testament is how personal it becomes. The place where it starts is your own heart- which you have full ownership over.

Personal Economic Justice

Let’s look at “Personal Economic Justice” starting with something simple: Our own budgets.

 For most of my life, I lived with a constant, low-grade feeling of guilt that I should be giving more, along with a constant, low-grade feeling of guilt that I need to be saving for the future (thanks fiscally conservative parents!)

It didn't help that it seemed like I heard things like this all the time: “For the price of a latte everyday, you can save a child from slavery/stop the destruction of rainforests/keep a refugee family from starvation.” That makes it seem like there’s two choices- enjoy a small treat in the midst of my busy life OR save a child/save the rainforest/feed a family. If I wanted to buy coffee, I was letting the rainforest die and kids starve. No wonder all of my financial decisions carried so much guilt, the fate of starving kids was resting on them.

The way I've found to navigate this is through determining what are my walnut priorities for my money, and what are my rice priorities.  Let me explain. 

Think about the life of Oskar Schindler for a moment, whose life became famous in Schindler’s List. He was a wealthy German factory owner and member of the Nazi party during World War II. He used his factory in Poland to hire Jewish workers, and was able to protect them from the concentration camps. With his connections, he kept his workers safe and fed by bribing and schmoozing Nazi officials. It was a huge sacrifice, and he went to massive lengths to keep his Jewish workers safe and alive. By the end of the war, his entire fortune was gone- which he estimated to be over $1 million. Schindler took his wealth and influence, and used it to save lives. Around 1,200 Jews were saved, and in 2012, it’s estimated that there are 8,500 descents alive from that original group. 

When we look back on his legacy from a generation later, it's easy to see that the $1 million was well-spent. There were people in that same generation that had nice, comfortable lives- and didn’t do anything wrong, but they also chose to use their wealth to keep that nice life. Most of us would want to think that we, too, would be the Oskar Schindler. But the reality is most would probably have just plugged along in life, not doing wrong but not doing anything intentional to help, either.

Identifying the Walnuts and the Rice

This is has become the foundation of my financial decisions: In order to live with eternity in mind, I have to have the right mindset about what’s temporary, especially money. And then I must be intentional about creating priories that reflect my eternally-minded budget.

Let’s use the time management illustration about walnuts and rice to think about how to create priorities. You have a jar, and have to fill it with a handful of big, unshelled walnuts and a handful of small grains of rice. If you fill it with rice first, there won’t be room for the walnuts. But if you add the walnuts first and the rice second, then the rice will slide in around the walnuts so there is room for both. I think that is a great way to think about creating priorities for your wealth. Set your Kingdom priorities in your budget- what you are seeking first to do with your finances- and feel freedom in how you manage the rest.

The walnuts symbolize what’s important and the rice is the extra stuff. If you let yourself get caught up in the small, immediate trappings of wealth- going from one car to the next and just “keeping up with the Jones”, then there probably won’t be enough resources for things like Kingdom building because it’s not as immediate or in front of you. 

Imagine yourself one generation in the future, looking back on your life. All of the luxuries- while not wrong- will probably be forgotten. But what you did with your influence and resources will be remembered. What legacy do you want to leave- and how do you practically use your resources to make that happen?

Nice cars, pretty houses, trendy clothes- none of it is bad. What's wrong is when they become the walnuts and what really matters in life is forced to become the rice. What are your priorities? What is the legacy that you want to be remembered with? When you get to heaven and look back on your life, what do you want to see? All of that is possible because you intentionally prioritized taking what is temporary and using it to further God’s eternal kingdom.

Holding money with eternity in mind is essential to walking out a lifestyle of faith

In Hebrews 11, where the famous list of men and women of faith are listed, listen to how Moses’ attitude toward temporary luxury is described:

He preferred to suffer with God's people rather than to enjoy sin for a little while. He reckoned that to suffer scorn for the Messiah was worth far more than all the treasures of Egypt, for he kept his eyes on the future reward. (Heb 11:25-26, GNT)

Moses lived in what was probably the wealthiest household in the whole world at the time- Pharaoh’s palace. The most extravagant luxury on the planet at his time was at his reach. Yet when given the option of suffering with his people for the sake of future redemption, or lay around and enjoy his comfortable life, he chose the future reward. A mark of a life of faith is to have eyes on the eternal treasures instead of temporary luxuries. If in the process you get a big house or something nice, then it’s not bad. But your heart should be set on eternity. 

Intentionally set your walnut priorities for your money- and then let all the extra stuff go around it. What are the “Seek first the kingdom” walnuts in your budget? Make a list and build toward it. And the rest can be the rice- stuff to fit in around what really matters.

 

 

My Dad's love

Let's take a break from theology-ish topics to meet someone important, my dad:

 

Doors make him pretty happy. Born in a long line of inventive engineer types that loved working with their hands, my dad was raised tinkering in his dad's locksmith shop. Now he is one of the very best in the world at a very random, obscure specialty: Electrified door hardware. Yep, there are people like him in this world that are obsessed with door parts so you don't have to. And my dad happens to enjoy it immensely. 

One of my earliest memories with him is at the age of 4 or 5, sitting next to him and my brother as we stuffing plastic bags with electric hinges and screws. As a kid, he would happily take me on job sites, dressed in an oversized shirt and my bright blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. The sight of a little blond girl with stick-on earrings and brightly-laced shoes- and cordless power drill in hand- made most of the construction managers chuckle. But my dad was proud to bring me along. There was an upside to all the exposure. My dad taught me an important childhood lesson from visiting so many different companies so young: always choose a job based on the quality of their cafeteria food.  

My dad loves things that are tangible and you see in front of you- but things that are less-concrete, like emotions, are hard for him to understand and respond to. One Christmas when his fellow locksmith brother was visiting, our family went to a free museum day together. My dad and uncle walked through this architecturally-beautiful museum with world-class art and looked bored the whole time. They didn't stop to look at anything. But when we were exiting the building, they in unison lit up and started chatting like teenage-girls. They just found the most beautiful, exciting thing in the whole building for them: The exit door. They stopped for almost 10 minutes to oogle the hardware on the door and discuss all the details of the closer, door weight, strike, and panic bar. That's my dad. Not only really good at door hardware, he's also emotionally moved by it. But abstract expression doesn't make sense. 

There is an upside to having a not-so-emotionally-expressive, yet still intensely loving father: He's the most practical person when it comes to loving. For him, loving doesn't look like saying cute things, it looks like showing up with an electric drill when I need a shelf hanged. If I need to borrow a tool or something for my car or computer- he acts like all his "dad" resources are my resources, too. If something needs to get done, he plans to do it right away. When I'm hungry, I know I can always count on him to feed me. He's taught me that love shows up and cares about the practical details of your life.

At the end of my junior year of college (which is located in my hometown) I casually mentioned to him my move out date from my apartment, and that it was the same day as my last final. That finals week was brutal. I biked home from that last exam, tears streaming down my face because I was so tired and had no idea how I would get my energy together to pack my stuff that night alone. I turned the corner into my parking lot, and there was my dad with his big Ford F150 truck and a bunch of Banker's boxes. Apparently just telling him my move out date was his invitation to come with his truck- because of course how you tell your daughter you are proud of her for finishing another year of school is showing up with your truck and tools.

My dad doesn't do Hallmark cards. But he does do things like this all the time. 

Love is the big warm and fuzzy feelings. And love is the hand that that helps you pack boxes when you need to move. Love lends its car when it's needed, or drops everything and shows up when you get stranded somewhere. It makes Sunday morning blueberry coconut pancakes for your adult daughter after she's moved into her own house. Love is practical, it takes physical shape in our practical, physical world through those sorts of actions. 

It's super fun for me now to express love in the same way. When a friend needs something practical, I love to show up and do it for them. Once when visiting an out-of-state friend, I noticed that something in their toilet was broken. I went to Home Depot and got the $5 replacement part and installed it myself. It was $5 and about 30 minutes of my time, but it meant the world to my friend and her roommates. After I left, I got a text message saying that she thought of me every time she flushed the toilet- not sure if that was the goal but it showed that it meant something to her. When a friend needs practical help, it makes me so happy to do it. I get a big smile and think, "My dad would do this- he loves this same way."

My dad loves showing up with his tool kit and so do I. He buys small things that you forget you need, and checks fluid levels in the car before you go on a road trip- and I love doing the same for others. I love cooking for friends that could use a good homemade meal after a stressful week, just like my dad would do. I'm single, and know that when you are navigating life without a partner to help, practical, boring stuff can be rough. Sometimes the best way of loving my single friends is to talk over health insurance options or help research the answer to a grown-up-real-world problem. That's loving like my dad loves. 

Showing people I care about the love my dad showed me is my favorite. It's a way for me to show that love of showing up in the practical, everyday stuff- of continuing the love he poured into me my whole life into the world today.

Now, I can make this a little theological. When I think of the ways that God loves me, I can't help but want to love the way my Father loves. Of course, God is more emotionally connected and expressive than my own dad, but you get the point.  My Father loves taking care of orphans, and so do I. My Father loves to restore what's been broken, and so do I. My Father loves listening to the isolated and lonely in the world, and so do I. My Father loves and does justice, and so do I. I want that love that my Father has for the world to be demonstrated and expressed through my own actions. When I do, I get a smile and think, "My Dad would do this- He loves this same way."

Volunteer!

What's the book about?

After a decade of social justice work, I had an embarrassing secret. I couldn’t actually define “social justice.”  I mean, it seemed to be good and in the Bible somewhere, therefore I reasoned I should do it. One day, I was sitting on an empty library floor with my brain full of statistics, researching the best projects to stop poverty, when God dropped a simple question my way: "What do I say I love?" 
I was in the middle of researching something I thought He’d like. Why would He interrupt to ask me about His feelings? I had made working for justice my top priority because I thought that God wanted that. And yet, the question hit me hard. After all my work, I couldn’t answer a question that’s fundamental to all intimate relationships. So I switched from reading statistics about poverty to reading the Bible to hear God's heart. 
What I saw shocked me. In my church background, social justice had a reputation for being worldly-centered and theologically-weak and was therefore treated as a side hobby. But the more I read the Bible, the more I learned how wrong that reputation was. 
The Biblical story is the full display of God's own love for justice and righteousness- and anyone with any life calling can live it out. After years of trying to cut through the personal and political agendas driving social justice projects, I discovered the secret formula. To get the most powerful, practical, Christ-centered and unbiased message about justice, I only needed to read the Bible. This book, God Loves Justice and Righteousness, is written to serve those who want that kind of a message: a resource for Biblical social justice that brings you closer to God’s heart and lets you be a unique expression of what He loves.

Why should I volunteer?The heart behind the book is to serve Christians who want to learn what the Bible says about social justice- without any politics or personal agendas mixed in. Your feedback is crucial to make sure the material is explained effectively and refine the teaching before it is published. Who can participate? 

Christians from all age ranges, educational experience, careers, denominational backgrounds (including Catholic and Orthodox!) 

What will the feedback process be like?

Once the group is identified, everyone will be mailed a physical copy of the book. The group has two weeks to finish it (unless another timeline is worked out), then schedule a 30-45 minute conversation at your convenience to give feedback and answer questions. 

How can I volunteer?

If you are interested, please fill out the form below. We are trying to build a diverse group with people from a lot of backgrounds, that’s why we are asking demographic information. If you are selected, then we will email you with information.

Still have questions? Email: admin@godlovesjustice.com

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