Why You Shouldn’t Feel Guilty in the Face of Injustice

I remember the most malnourished children I’ve ever seen.

I was in Zimbabwe on a mission trip, and our bus had broken down somewhere between Victoria Falls and Bulaweyo, the second largest city in the country. The whole group climbed out of the bus to kill time on the side of the road while we waited for repairs to be made.

There happened to be a village nearby and soon we were surrounded by a bunch of kids wondering what these white people were doing in such a remote place. Most of the children we met there weren’t wearing shoes (Zimbabwean kids don’t like shoes), but they had good clothes and looked relatively healthy and energetic.

A few minutes into meeting them, two smaller children—a girl and boy—arrived.

They were acting odd, almost crazy. Their hair was reddish colored, clothes barely held together, and stomachs protruding. It took me a minute, but after observing, I realized why these two were acting so strangely and different from the others: They were starving.

*Photo Credit: Joris-Jan, Creative Commons

When we realized a mechanic wouldn’t be showing up anytime soon, our group leaders assessed the lunch situation. There certainly wasn’t enough food for the entire crowd that had gathered with us by the road, so they decided to serve only our group on the bus. They were being held responsible for our well-being, so this made sense.

But I refused to eat.

Instead of joining my team, I sat on the front row of the bus and wallowed. And I thought everyone else shouldn’t eat too. They should all feel just as bad as I was feeling. I kept asking God why I had so much when the young children outside the window had so little.

I now realize how unproductive that response was. Though I was focusing on the poor and needy around me, I was also very self-focused, allowing guilt to be my dominant emotion.

Tim Keller said in a sermon once that, “The reason you can’t deal with your guilt is that you believe God is simply merciful.” He goes on to talk about God’s justice and how believing in the just side of God along with His mercy will draw us out of guilt. If we forget the just part of God, our work against poverty or slavery or hunger will be done out of a type of frustration, as if we are doing this job because God isn’t. He isn’t fair, so we must work to make things fair for all people.

I questioned God’s mercy as I sat alone on the front row of the bus, quilted by defiance.

I forgot about His justice, and I was angry with Him. But do you know what not eating and feeling angry and guilty did for the starving children outside? Nothing.

Guilt is as helpful as apathy in a scenario like that. But if we can believe in the mercy and justice of our God, we can get past the guilt and apathy to the place where empathy and action dwell.

Why You Shouldn’t Feel Guilty in the Face of Injustice is a post from: Storyline Blog