Over the past couple of months I’ve been really wrestling with a question I felt like had an obvious answer. A question that I thought I already had an answer for months ago.
“God, why am I doing the World Race? Like, really why?”
Like the annoying little girl pulling at her dad’s pant legs, I’ve been coming back to the Lord for months asking over and over “But really, why? What is your objective here, God? What do I have to offer? What do I have to learn?”
A few weeks ago as I was expressing to my counselor my ongoing frustration with a situation in my life.
I told her about how frustrated I was with myself for being angry over a wrong that had been done. I was mad at myself for being mad.
She looked me at me and said, “Kearstin, it sounds like you just want justice. You’re made in the image of a God who is justice. That’s not a bad thing to seek.”
And that’s when I realized why I’m doing the Race.
Because I just want justice.
For the people I love and the people I’ve never met because at the end of the day, my Jesus knows and loves the heart and soul of each. And He wants that justice for His people too.
The Hebrew word for justice is mishpat which can be translated to something along the lines of treat people equitably or fairly.
It’s giving people what they are due, what they deserve, whether that is punishment, protection, care or kindness. Mishpat is defending the outlier, the vulnerable, the one society doesn’t always make room for.
If we believe that God is who He says He is and that each person is made in His image, then Church, we owe it to the Lord not to overlook the injustice running rampant in our world.
Justice is love in action.
We can’t overlook the places where where education isn’t accessible.
We can’t overlook the fact that in parts of the world, getting the flu can cut a life short.
We can’t overlook the truth that we live in a world where there are women sucked into human trafficking daily because they have no other way to survive.
We can’t overlook the fact that working conditions can be so poor on the other side of the globe that people die because we want to buy a $10 shirt at Target.
We can’t overlook injustice because our God is justice and justice is love in action.
So, if you asked me today why I’m doing the Race I’d say because I want to be more like Jesus and Jesus is love in action.
As the Lord’s been walking me to and through this lesson, I’ve been working on a fundraiser that I’m really excited about and hope you will be too!
Isaiah 1:17 has slowly but surely become one of my favorite verses. It says, “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
It’s one of many verses that confirms that as Christians, justice isn’t an option, but a direct instruction. We’re commanded to take action, care for the vulnerable and oppressed, and do our part to make right that which is wrong in our broken world.
Justice isn’t a cultural fad or societal trend, it’s a biblical commandment.
That is why, I’ve been working on this design for way too long (perfectionism, amiright?).
These two designs come in a few different (and all equally fabulous) colors. You can find them at www.bonfire.com/kearstins-word-race/
They will be available to order until February 15 and will be shipped directly to you between February 26 and March 6.
I pray that you’ll not only purchase and wear this shirt to support my work for the Lord, but that you’ll also wear it as a reminder to yourself and the people around you that justice is love in action and that is something worth fighting for.
As always, I want to invite you on this World Race journey with me. Here are a few ways to do that!
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The most important, pray. In my last blog, I asked you to pray for the Lord’s provision in reaching $5,000 fundraised by January 31. GUYS. We hit $5,000 (25% of my total fundraising) on DECEMBER 29. God is so, so good. Will you please continue to pray for fundraising efforts as the t-shirts launch?
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Subscribe. If you want to subscribe to my blog and stay up to date on what God is doing in my life and in this journey, click the orange “Subscribe for Updates” in the top left-hand corner.
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Share. If my blog has touched you in any way tell a friend by clicking the “Share with” links to share this on social media. Also sharing the link to this shirt fundraiser would be enormous help as well. 🙂
