Justice

I've been thinking about Justice a lot lately, and I've found some interesting insights in the book I'm currently reading, A Community Called Atonement by Scot McKnight. Scot's basic ideas so far (I'm about 3/4 through the book...) are this: The Atonement, however we are to understand it, is ultimately about restoration of relationships between ourselves, God, others, and the world. He then explains that this relational view of atonement leads to a relational view of Justice, insofar as practicing justice means doing the work of healing relationships with God, others, and the world. I'm doing kind of a bad job of summarizing, so you should just read the book, but my point is this: The work of justice has to be about redemptive relationships. This is something that's going to take some more processing before I know what it looks like in my life, but I know that it's something I want to spend my life doing: working for justice wherever I happen to be.

One way I feel I can do that is in the midst of disagreement. I feel like God has been showing me more and more that beliefs are often the result of dramatic and painful experiences in people's lives. I've been learning that people believe differently things --about God, about religion, about everything-- simply because they have experienced life differently. Pain, or the avoidance of pain, has this amazing power that causes us to contort our beliefs into shapes that are least painful. We see many examples of this every day, and probably most of the time we don't even realize it.

For me, this is where justice comes in. I believe it's a form of injustice in our society when we tell people they must believe all things exactly the way we do. Now please don't misunderstand me, I still believe there are certain universal truths that are non-negotiable. But for me, that list has been melting away at an alarming rate. And what's more, the way I react to someone who disagrees with me has changed dramatically. I used to get really defensive and try to explain why my way was right, and more and more I find myself simply trying to understand why someone believes they way they do. This has lead me to much more peaceful and healthy relationships with people around me, and a more peaceful state of mind in general.

I don't know what God has in store for me next in life, but I do know that whatever it is, I will be working for justice, and I will be doing it through redemptive, relational ways. ways that hear and understand the pain behind belief.