Category Archives: Justice

Journeying With Someone to the Brink of Destruction

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Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster for me. I have spent the last two weeks investing in a man’s life here in Atlanta. He is homeless, but says he wants a fresh run at life. He used to be in inside sales, and have a “good” life as we measure it culturally, and by societal standards, but life started unravelling for him a few years ago, and ended with him on the street.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been loving him, and gospeling him in a way that he could not even comprehend because he says his own family has not ever shown him genuine love. I was really starting to see some progress, and had even gotten him into a transitional facility, then three days ago he disappeared. Just vanished, no calls, nothing.

One o’clock yesterday afternoon I receive a three way call from the crisis help line, and it is him, and they have called me to help talk him off the edge. At some point in the last three days he hit a wall, and it culminated with him standing on the edge of the overpass of interstate 285 about to jump into traffic, and end his life, and possibly the person who’s car he jumped in front of.

For some reason, in the middle of his despair he decided to get off the bridge and call the crisis hot-line, I can only believe it was the holy spirit. For some reason he decided to have them call me because he said he loved and trusted me, and wanted to say goodbye to me, I can only believe that was the implications of the gospel, working themselves out in a moment in time.

Nearly an hour we went back and forth about why he should live, versus why he should die. He cried, I cried, the crisis line lady cried as well. It was emotionally and spiritually exhausting…but this is what front lines missional ministry looks like in the city. You journey with people, even to the brink of destruction. And it costs, but the cost is well worth it for what was paid by Christ so that we could pay this meager cost of giving our lives in serving Him, and being a part of His mission to seek and to save.

Today Gary lives, at least another day, so that the gospel can continue to work in his life. Pray that God give me the strength to continue to journey with him, as Christ draws him to Himself.

I Just Saw a Drug Bust Happen Across the Street from me

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It’s amazing that where I live I can watch drug dealers get arrested, and then go and sit in the shadows of large dogwoods in front of mansions. I know I have belabored this point over several posts, but I don’t feel I can do enough to expose this horrible dichotomy of people and resources.

Statistically people don’t sell drugs because that’s what they always wanted to do. People sell drugs because that’s what they feel they have to do. How am I supposed to reconcile this? How can we give these kids (the guys busted couldn’t have been more than 16) another choice and chance at life.

I was nearly caught in this same cycle, and I had incredible parents who gave me everything I needed. I was one of those idiots who did it because I wanted to…because of pressure from my circle of friends. I had a choice, and I took it, and I, by Christ grace, have been able to build a life of academic, athletic, and now career success.

But what about those kids, who come home to empty refrigerators, and absent fathers? Those kids who see the guys in the neighborhoods who “made it,” are those who live a lifestyle that lends itself to treachery and a string of poor decisions? If social programs alone could change this, they would have. If education alone could change this, it would have by now. This is not a matter of just changing actions, but rather, changing worldview…and only a force much greater than that exhibited by those things can change someones worldview. Thankfully there is more than a force, there is a person, in the resurrected Jesus, who paid the price in His blood for the heart, soul, and minds of our children.

These kids need social reform, because our system has classically done much to keep them right where they are…or rather, hasn’t done much to see them escape it. They need education, because it is a fact that there are more African American men in jail than there are in colleges. But more than that, they need the gospel.

If you feel otherwise, convince me. Show me where, in decades of administrations, social programs and educational reform has solved this problem. Show me, and I’ll concede. But reality is, that those things have only been a band aid to try and cover a wound much too deep to reconcile….

Lent Reflections: Justice

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The FBI reports that my city, Atlanta, is first among cities in the United States actively involved in the sex trade industry. When I first heard this, it ripped my heart…it left me speechless. How can we live, going about our lives, day by day, with this evil lurking in our city…around the corner…at our door steps. Where is justice, where is right? Who will stand for these who can not stand for themselves?

My brother, Aaron wrote that “according to several news sources like the AJC and the Signal Urbanite, this has become an increasing problem within our city.” You can read more here.

I have spent the last several summer’s in Cambodia and Thailand, two countries that are reviled by the rest of the world for allowing these sick practices to take place, and yet, here in an industrialized, post-modern society, we sit idly as this egregious practice continues to take place…and increase in frequency.

Could this possibly be real? That just weeks ago a sex-trade ring was broken up here…in the U.S….in Atlanta? How long will we pretend that this is not going on in our city? How long will we lay silent?

To the Christ Follower, it is time to reflect what is in your heart toward those who suffer, are abused, and are treated as property…less than human. Jesus said, “Go and learn what this means, I prefer mercy to sacrifice.”

To those who do no follow Christ, reflect on why you desire justice….if life has no design, no function, and no grand designer who establishes moral law….then what is right or wrong? Who is right and who is wrong? How do we know the difference?

Orphans…what orphans?

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I started last week at Cornerstone is a non-profit organization that works through churches to place orphaned children in safe homes. Cornerstone Family Services. I would link to the web site, but it is being updated, and the old one was not that exciting.

Here are some statistics to consider:

  • 800,000, that’s the number of children in the system right now who need homes
  • 240,000, that’s how many foster care families that a registered nationwide
  • 7, that’s the number of times a child is typically moved inside of one year because of a lack of stability in the foster home they are placed.

Where is the church. There is a mandate from old testament to new, that we are to care for orphans? Are these not orphans? Why are we overlooking a very serious issue issue in our country? No child should be left without a family. No child should be left without a home. No child should have to live in seven different houses in a one year time period. The state is failing, the church has failed…lets get our hands dirty, and get back to the things we have been called to do.

What if President Obama’s mom found being a single parent to difficult? What if?

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How many have died that would have been great? How many more will die that could be great?

p.s. This is not an opportunity for the hard left the stand back and sneer or for the hard right to stand up and cheer for where they think our thought I stood because of the vote I cast. These are my views…to support life.

The World as 100…something must change

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The World As 100 People…
If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this…

60 Asians
12 Europeans
8 Latin Americans
5 from USA & Canada
1 from South Pacific
14 Africans
49 would be female
51 would be male
82 would be non-white, 18 white
67 would be non-Christian, 33 would be Christian
32% of the world’s wealth would be in the hands of only 5 people and all 5 would be U.S. citizens
80 would live in substandard housing
24 would not have electricity
33 would not have access to safe water
67 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
One would be near death, 2 would be near birth
Only one would have a college education
7 would have internet access

Restorer of Streets

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Christ followers are supposed to be a gift to this world. We are supposed to embody those most precious qualities that drive us to love unconditionally, give without expecting anything in return, and serve without recognition…not my idea, but Jesus’. We are supposed to be a light, so magnetic, and illuminating that we are a catalyst drive out the darkness from peoples lives. But, with these mandates comes one more…we are called to reclaim, and rebuild the broken places. To restore what has been abandoned, and bring beauty and redemption to it, and those who call those places home…

John 9:13 says, “Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” And the question is why, because as Isaiah 58:12 says, “Some of you will rebuild the ancient ruins;you will restore the foundations laid long ago;you will be called the repairer of broken walls, the restorer of streets where people live.”

Jesus was very clear that He believed mercy… compassion, was more important than our sacrificial system. Why, because we are called to reclaim and rebuild. To take those places that have been left as ruins in our city, and those streets where people live that no one would dare go down, and to be their restorer. As a Christ follower you are called to something more than the Sunday morning ritual. You are called to holistically redeem the world around you. You are called to be a restorer of streets.

Sharing Bread

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Isaiah 58 is a detailed portion of scripture about the true nature of fasting and humility in seeking God…but there are three sections that moved me, made me question how I was truly engaging the suffering and hurting in this world. This is the first.

58:7-8 says, “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him,and to not ignore your own flesh and blood? Then your light will appear like the dawn……”

The it referred to in this passage is fasting, but I think if we look closely we can stretch this across our very existence. Do we not exist for those reason’s? To see, as much as possible, that no one hungers unnecessarily, or exist without shelter, clean clothing. Is this not a part of life that brings meaning? Or, will we ignore our own flesh and blood? Flesh and blood being all humanity, because we are all human.

This was an indictment to me to do more…be more…for those who, for whatever reason, have lost the ability to function in this society… in this world. In this our light truly shines.

Human

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There is a quote from the book, “A mile in my shoes” that says this, “When we engage those who have nothing, we should be pilgrim’s, not tourist, we should go to receive, not give, we should be learners, not teachers…”

What a humbling thought, but how true it can be if we allow it to penetrate…I spent several hours with people yesterday who are considered to be the have not’s in our society, and although they had little in the way of material possesion, they had so much to offer anyone who would engage them…anyone who would listen.

There were nearly 470 human beings, including some children, that we had the privilage of sharing a meal with yesterday, that for some of them, would be the last meal for a while. Nearly 470 human beings that left us to return to a life living and surviving under bridges, and in hedges, or anywhere that they may find warmth.

Nearly 470 human beings who want nothing more than to to be treated as just that, a human being, and an equal….who want nothing more than to be shown genuine love. As much as I would like to say I served them, gave to them, taught them…it was wholly the opposite. It was I who walked away different.

We can no longer turn a blind eye to the broken places of our society…our world.