"People hate this kind of talk, raw truth is never popular. But here it is, bluntly spoken: justice is a lost cause, evil is an epidemic. You talk about God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, being your best friend. Well, live like it, and maybe it will happen. I can't stand your religious meetings, I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music, when was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice – oceans of it. I want fairness – rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want."
– e x c e r p t s f r o m A M O S 5 : 1 0 – 2 4
During bar ministry on Monday night, my team and I were striking up conversations with some of the bargirls. The younger girls claimed to be eighteen, with my highest bet being fifteen. I was privileged to become friends with a young Burmese woman named Lawan*.
As I am chatting with Lawan, this older gentleman walks in the bar. He's your typical sixty+ grandfather character: khaki shorts worn around the belly, navy and maroon plaid shirt, neatly-kept gray hair… you know the type. I smile and greet him and continue my conversation with Lawan. A few minutes later, a teammate gives me the "look over there" eyes.
What I saw was our "grandfather figure" drinking a beer with one of the youngest girls, groping her, holding her hands, and kissing her.
In those moments, you feel the most helpless.
Since witnessing this, I have been thinking about justice; I love the verses in Amos because I don't know of a better passage that explains God's heart towards the matter. The more I see situations like this (believe me, I have several stories already), the more I realize that there really isn't much that matters. What does it matter that I came all the way from America if I don't share Jesus with those I run into? It doesn't matter if I say God is my best friend or "Jesus is my homeboy" – it only matters that my life displays Him. Our "noisy ego-music" doesn't matter if we're not singing to Him.
Currently, I am struggling with loving the culture I was raised in. I love American people, I am "proud to be an American"; however, I am sick of cute marketing slogans and fundraisers for new technology and anything that feeds our never-ending need to be stimulated or entertained. I am a perfect example: the past three days, I have had amazing time with God in the morning; however, I "had" to check my email first. Why? Our selfishness needs to be strangled, not enabled.
Earlier today, I was listening to a testimony of a person who greatly speaks into my life without even knowing it; I've only met him face-to-face once. He broke as he talked about his past and how God has redeemed him; he then proceeded to describe a recent experience in his life, which took place last year when he was in Uganda. He explained that, as he entered a Ugandan church and watched thousands of people worship God with purity he'd never seen, he asked the Lord why we never experience that in America. The response was that the Ugandans were worshipping Him simply for who He is – they don't need fancy quotes or concepts to remind them, they just worship God because He is.
Today, I dare you to do that: force yourself to take ten minutes to worship God just because He is God. I dare you to do something that lets love win. I dare you to take a stand for what's right when no one else will. I dare you to excercise justice and fairness. I dare you to live like God exists. I dare you to repent for a sin and be done with it. I dare you to strangle your selfishness rather than enable it.
If it's truly for freedom that Christ has set us free, then we have the freedom to to go against the grain and actually live for Him. I dare you to take a new step towards that today.
*Name has been changed for safety; I chose names based on meaning and culture (this month, names will be Thai).
