In the bible, there are two quotes that are relevant to all of those who think about justice or seeking justice daily: 

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow's cause,” (Isaiah 1:17). “He has told you, O man, 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?” (Micah 6:8)    

I think some of us enjoy talking about justice and others of us are doing our best to promote justice. Either way, these verses are important to remember, to keep us on track and on a path towards His work. I was sitting in church today and we had a visitor. The theme of his sermon was God's Justice. Not only that, but he was preaching that we combat injustices with humility and integrity rather than fearful arrogance. He shared an incredible story of his youth that set him on a path to fight injustices around the world. It was a reminder that privilege exists and God calls us to combat and fight against these injustices every day even if it means telling someone in a position of privilege he or she is wrong. 

He was reminded of a time he was riding home with a group of friends. When they landed at the house, they opened the door and were stopped by police and arrest for assulting a woman. Though he an his friends denied never knowing this woman, they were arrested anyways and brought to the Allegheny Jail. Eventually, they were released but had to appear in court to testify that again, they had done nothing wrong. When the woman assured them that this was not the individual who had assaulted her, he was finally let go and his record was erased. Or so he thought. 

Fast forward four years and this individual is graduating high school and wants to apply to the military. He completes all the paperwork, passes the tests, turns in his forms and is called saying, "I'm sorry, but your application for the military has been denied. It says that you were arrested for assult four year ago." How could this be? He thought to himself. So he went back to the court. That same court he appeared in almost four years ago and had a long time with one of the lady's there. He assured her that he had not been the one assaulting this woman. She had told him he was innocent and he had left home knowing that his record was clean. The lady looked at him and said as clearly as she could, "It is quite evident to me that someone kept this on your record to purposefully hurt you." It was in this moment that this pastor new he would be fighting for God's justice for a lifetime. 

Whether we want to believe it or not, those of us who were born caucasian in a nice suburban neighborhood. Well, we aren't going to get targeted for assault-we just aren't. There are so many injustices the people around us have to deal with and yet we sometimes deem it as "well not my problem." But it is. It's all of our problems. We are all brothers and sisters and until we really think about how we are going to teach these injustices to those around us-well...we aren't really on God's mission towards justice. There is whimsy in justice, but only when we are fighting for God's justice and not our own agenda.