The Loop

Have you ever experienced something that just instantly changed your life from there on out? This happened to me on Memorial Day weekend in 2020. The world was still reeling from the beginning of the covid pandemic, but there was something else that was stirring in our country. If you haven’t caught on yet, I’m talking about the protests that spread across our country after the tragic murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.

At the time I was the youth pastor at a church in Lafayette, IN. My youth group was predominantly made up of black students. For three years I had lived life with them. My eyes were opened to a completely different culture and worldview, one that I had grown to deeply love and appreciate. As I walked with them, I also began to see the hurt, pain, and despair that many of them experienced daily simply because of the color of their skin. If you’ve ever truly, deeply, loved someone then you know that their pain becomes yours. That’s exactly what happened with these students.

Even though a pandemic was raging on, I had a young daughter at home, and violence had broken out at many protests around the country, I knew deep down when I heard of Lafayette having a protest, I had to be there. I showed up alone, masked, and with no agenda other than being there to love and support the community that I had come to love and care about. What happened that day became moments in my life that I will never forget. I ran into students and parents who I simply hugged. I told them I loved them and would always support and fight with them. I walked, prayed, and listened as we journeyed through downtown Lafayette as people, some of my students included lamented, and poured out the injustice that had followed them their entire lives. It was the first time in my life that I truly understood what injustice was, and just how privileged I was to have not experienced it in my 25 years of life. It was heartbreaking, eye-opening, and instantly became a passion of mine that simply refuses to go away.

Injustice seems to be everywhere we look in the world. There’s racial injustice, gender inequality, homophobia, sex trafficking, and childhood hunger just to name a few. There are so many wrongs in the world that sometimes it seems like there isn’t much that is right. Sometimes, rather than caring, it’s easier for us to just tune it out and go on living our lives as though nothing is happening. That in and of itself is a privilege that many do not have. It’s also not at all what Jesus calls us to do.

When you dive into the life of Jesus and look at what He was passionate about, you begin to see that He lived in the middle of the injustice. He didn’t run away from it. He hung out with the lowly and despised. He engaged with the people society said weren’t worthwhile or worthy, let alone worth saving. Jesus did it differently.

He spent time with greedy tax collectors, the most hated of thieves. He told stories about loving Samaritans, the most despised group of people. He even called a prostitute more holy than His disciples because, though it wasn’t much, she gave everything she had to thank Jesus for how He loved her. Jesus thrived around injustice because He came to bring justice. He came to set people free from the chains, both literal and figurative, that held them captive. He was doing exactly what His Father had been about throughout all the Old Testament.

We don’t just see this idea of justice with Jesus in the New Testament as He flipped the world on its head. We see it all throughout the Old Testament as, time and time again, God stuck up for the little guy. Justice for those who don’t have a voice has always been a passion of God; which means, it needs to be a passion of ours.

But like we talked about earlier, sometimes it gets overwhelming. There’s so much evil, injustice, and hurt in the world. We look around and think, how can I, just one person living in Central Indiana, ever truly make a difference? The truth is, you can make a difference because it’s what Jesus has called you to do. As His church, we should be on the front lines. Start with asking God to stir passion in your heart for something specific. There’s too much injustice in the world for us all to engage with everything. We will get burnt out, tired, and give up. Instead, when God puts something on your heart fight like crazy for that injustice. Don’t feel guilty for not fighting for them all. We’re humans. We can’t do it all ourselves. But God? Just imagine what He could do through all of us if we came together to fight every injustice this world has to offer. That’s what it looks like to bring heaven to earth.

With our students this month, we’re going to dive into the story of Joseph, a man who faced his fair share of injustice, but who also fought the very injustice he faced. He helped save thousands of lives simply by listening to God’s guidance in his life and acting on it. When we and our students decide to partner with God, change can happen. While it might seem daunting, impossible, or difficult, God will be right there with you, proud of the work you’re doing to make it here as it is in heaven.

Share