A Fathers justice

So this is the last day of our Live below the Line challenge. If you're not sure what the challenge is please read my earlier post this week entitled 'Give me joy in my heart'. The challenge has been an interesting one and a time of serious reflection for myself and Sara about how we use our money, how we oppress others without even thinking about it and how much God has blessed us. There have been times were the lack of food and boring water have simply become normal and times were the challenge was almost unbearable. Yesterday was definitely a day of the unbearable.

I had an important meeting to discuss some youth work challenges we are facing and this meeting occurred in Starbucks for a total of 3 hours. The coffee, the muffins, the panini's, the fruit toast, oh man was it hard. The glass of iced water all of a sudden felt like I was drinking crude oil. Those I was meeting with all had their selection of cappuccino's, lattes and espresso's banded around the table and when lunch time came my rice with carrot and broccoli was more like a mouthful of sawdust. It was hard and it was also tempting.

I found myself in this meeting thinking only of myself, self indulging in my own fantasies of what it would be like to taste that caramel shortbread with a hot perfectly made cappuccino after a mozzarella.. and.. meat ball.... panini... mmmmm (Let's pause a second whilst I salivate on that thought which will not aid my current hunger in the slightest),

Anyway, back in the hungry world, what I found myself doing was I was becoming self obsessed in this place of hunger, and this got me thinking. If my son was doing the live below the line challenge (he's 2 years old and enjoying the ball pool currently at home), would I be so obsessed with my own hunger? You see I can't help but feel that I would be filled with concern, worry, anger and frustration if my son was living off £1 per day. I have chosen to undertake this challenge, as a 2 year old he wouldn't have chosen this challenge and we would have been placing this feeling of hunger, uncomfort, tiredness and oppression on him. I would be angry that he couldn't eat his usual crumpets, that he would not be able to dive into the varied choices we have in our world, that he could not experience a full stomach and know that we have provided for him.

And this is where my thoughts have taken me during this week. God is a loving Father who gets concerned, angry and frustrated at the oppression his children are forced into. There is no need to look into scripture regarding God's provision, as the sheer amount of food discarded on a weekly, if not daily basis is enough proof that provision of food is there. We also only need to look at the distribution of wealth and resources in the world to see that once again provision for everyone is there, just not distributed fairly. We know this stuff, and we've known it for years, yet still we seem to not act, to not consider our actions and our part in the problem. Our lives become so embroiled in ourselves, in what we get to eat, in how we can get by and how 'poor' we are that we fail to hear the justice cry of a loving and concerned Father for his 1.4 billion children, who have less than what we spend on a trashy burger from the golden arches.

Another aspect I have found in this place of self indulgence is that we justify. As the wealthy in comparison to the majority of the world we justify our spending, our extravagant yet pointless use of money on takeaways, clothes we don't need, or films we 'must see'. As martin smith,  in the song 'our God reigns', sings "but still my Chinese takeaway could pay for someones [medical] drugs'. I found myself in the midst of this challenge justifying our spending with phrases like 'we deserve a treat sometimes', 'it's all relative' and 'we're not as bad as some'.

Now this isn't about wallowing in a place of self guilt and self flagellation but is about a recognition that we, as the church, are called to make a difference, to stand up, to act. To receive the blessings bestowed on us with a thankful heart that loves our neighbours who live in extreme poverty, both in thoughts and actions, whether that is down the road or on another continent. This is the cry in Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25. Our Father in Heaven is their Father in Heaven and he is about justice for all. He stands up for the poor and oppressed not because he favours them above others but because they are treated unjustly and he is about justice. And this justice is to be displayed in this world, in the practical outworking of life not just the eternal destination of the soul.

As a Father I want my son to be treated justly, I want him to have enough food to grow, to realise he is blessed and to accept that blessing with a thankful heart. Our Father wants all his children to have enough food to grow, to realise we are blessed and to receive that with a truly thankful loving heart. If we are to take up the call to follow Jesus, to become his disciples, we have to take up his Father's call for Justice in our hearts, to stand up for the oppressed not contribute to it, to speak for the voiceless not mute our hearts, to feed the hungry not keep their food and to clothe the naked not indulge in our fashion.

God is not about guilt tripping, the love of the father and son on the cross proves that he is not a guilt tripping God. He is a God of action, a God of Justice and a God of love. After this week I for one am going to start being a father of justice and strive that my life reflects this choice, my prayer is that all his followers will choose that too and that with this call for justice our world will finally begin to move towards being a world of justice.