I was flipping through an old journal the other day and ran across this. It was flanked by reflections on how our South African preparations were coming along so far. With issues of race, class, religion, war, peace, humanity, violence, and justice dripping from every pre-departure reading I was just kicking around a few thoughts involving serious "buzz words" like justice and grace.
Journal Entry Snippet
8 March 2010
... Justice is good. Grace is better. God is both.
What would happen if people began to buy into the fact that there is no person who is more important or less important than someone else? What if people began to believe that they are inherently valuable and worthy? period. They were before they achieved one thing and they will be equally precious ever after a billion failures. That God has loved us 1st, reconciled us to Himself, and through the greatest demonstration of love ever displayed He justified us through FAITH, through our BELIEF, through our "buying in" to the fact that what we do, how we strive, and our petty attempts to be good enough... or at least better than the next guy ... won't actually get us anywhere.
Our momentary successes achieve us nothing more than one more thing to dust. Once we begin to grasp this concept we are entertaining the idea of grace and justification. Can we humble ourselves enough to see our striving for perfection can only lead to 2 things: failure &/or self loathing. We will NEVER maintain "good enough" for long enough. But since we are continually trying to justify our worth through external pursuits, we must constantly PROVE that we are better than other people. Thus,
we criticize where we could encourage,
we reject where we could embrace,
we distance when we could draw near.
Our fear of inadequacy blends with our disbelief and insecurities, to manifest itself in self-centered, prideful, greedy thoughts, which turn into behaviors, which turn into norms, which we accept and subtly intoxicate generations of people and entire nations with. Our disbelief in the gospel is raping ourselves, our humanity, and our world.
Love manifested in public is viewed as justice.
God wants lovers, not workers.
...
