#injustic

Holding the anxiety in my bones, I feel the tension from another frustrating situation where someone acts in a way I just don’t understand- or, yet: I understand, I see right through that what they’re doing is wrong, and it disturbs me down to my core no one else seems to notice. They get away with it. They get rewarded for it. 

It isn’t fair.

It’s commonly quoted to us, “Well, life isn’t fair.” Well, duh. Not even kingdom-living is ‘fair’. The righteous are persecuted, the servants of God martyred, the blameless accused, the pure despised, the accepting rejected. Jesus was tortured and crucified and didn’t deserve it- but He also saw it was the only way to save us by becoming our atoning sacrifice so we could be redeemed and forgiven. Grace isn’t fair. God forgives the worst of the worst, people who we wouldn’t show mercy to. He says, “I took your sin, I took your punishment, I took it all to the cross and overcame. Come to me, repent, and be new in Me. I love You.” We don’t deserve it, but He doesn’t let sin keep us from Him- He covers it wit His blood and invites us in to His arms.

It doesn’t feel fair to see the ‘good’ suffer and the evil ‘win’.

But it’s a lot more than that- that’s only an earthly perspective, and the Bible says that we are blessed when we are persecuted for the sake of Jesus, and that truly, evil never wins in the end. God is a God of mercy and forgiveness, but also justice- and He doesn’t let evil get away with it. Vengence is real and coming for every unrepentant evildoer, the Bible promises. Which really we should fear for them and hope that they discover salvation in Jesus, because when God does pour out his full wrath, it will be terrible for those suffer it.

Revisiting the gospel, what Jesus did for me, I realize that what I’m really upset about is that people act in ways that is wrong and don’t get stopped or called out in a way that stops them. Often they get away with it. I don’t see justice step in and be like, “Uhh, no. Not today. Not ever.” It’s so frustrating! Like, they’re getting away with being this way and they’ll just keep doing it, and there’s so many negative effects because of it.

For example, Trump hurts people with his inconsideration and does not see or value all people like Jesus does in his political agenda. I’m not attacking Donald Trump, I’m just using this as an example of how one person chooses to act that demeans the value of people, and it is so clear it’s wrong and disturbs me down to my heart that he gets away with treating people like that, yet the callousness of his actions just continues and is allowed. Even, a group of people support and defend him. I reject a lot of the decisions he’s made because they don’t reflect the heart of Jesus and hurt people. And when people hurt, my heart hurts with them. And I want to stop that from being allowed, I want to step in and say “No. Not today, not ever.”

Or on a personal life level, someone could be dealing with a teammate that gets to do things that our by-laws don’t allow gets to be the exception because of their talent and a person of power and position likes them. No one else would get the same strings pulled for them in the same situation, and everyone else is strictly required to follow what is demanded and laid out for us in the rules with no exceptions, but this one person gets to bypass it all with no effort- even though it’s against the rules in place that everyone else is required to follow because of: favoritism  and entitlement. It isn’t fair. We all get to watch total disregard to the rules and have to accept a new member who walks in with feeding attitudes of superiority.

In these different but similar situations, my heartbeat begins to race every time I speak up, because if you’re not the person of power, position, or importance, people don’t care too much what you have to say. You may get crushed because you don’t hold as much value to them. It’s almost like there’s more risk in speaking up than just bearing it and being frustrated in the meantime they get by with it.

On top of this, there’s the inevitable tension that conflict brings. 

I’m a peacemaker, which means I like to be at peace with everyone. I’m also person who likes to stand up and say “Hey, actually this is the way you go about this...” when people start abusing the system for their personal benefit because they can. Especially if no one else says anything or is afraid to. It’s just that someone has to say something, and I can see how ugly things could get down the road if everyone lets it slide and the behavior continue. But I don’t want to be the one to bring it up. I don’t want to feel like there’s strife because I drew attention to something that is wrong. I’m not trying to point at that person, but just help them see the non-beneficial behavior so it can be adjusted. Some people don’t care about adjusting their behavior; they think they can do whatever they want, no consequences. Many times nothing stop them from that, yeah, and we can’t change how people think, act, or the way they go about things.

So what are we left with?

I’m not talking about activism as much as seeing something happen that’s not right and being able to handle it with grace while not shaking inside from the division it seemingly causes because people don’t like being ‘called out’.

You can do your most to bring something up in a loving way, to seek resolution, to be a positive voice- but if they don’t take and the tension only gets worse because they refuse to change, you can’t make them realize what they’re doing is wrong. So you have to let it go and give it over to God. Pray for them. Promote peace. Be an example of what to do and know that while it may appear they get away with it, it will not benefit them or others in the end and you won’t be the only one who sees it eventually. It’s frustrating to not be able to stop things like favoritism, entitlement, political laws of a high level that affect large groups of people, (etc.) from happening, but what you can do is the stay faithful an demonstrate God’s heart and represent Jesus to everyone.

The behavior of others is not something you can control.

It sucks, because the behavior of others is something that affects us, but all we can do is look to Jesus and ask Him to show us the way to respond.

Grace and peace.

All through the Old and New Testament, the God of the heaven and earth speaks of iniquity. The first time we read of the word is in Genesis 15, where the Lord God is telling Abram, he would have an heir in his old age and how his seed would be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years. However, in the fourth generation of the…

Here is what it all boils down to: a man was shot execution style in the middle of the street by the very law enforcers assigned to serve and protect him. If this had occurred in another country, Americans would have gagged at the horrors of the tyrannical government that would allow such actions to go unpunished. But this happened in America. And it happened to a black man. And so the media and every day citizens are quick to ask, “What did he do to warrant this?”

That’s how it is in America. We ask what a husband and father of five did to warrant his unprovoked murder. As if we will ever find an answer that makes us nod in appreciation and think, “Oh, well in that case, I guess he did deserve it.”

Alton Sterling is dead and there are people in the world trying to justify his murder.

I want to scream, but what good will that do? Screaming won’t bring a child’s father back to life, let alone five children. Screaming won’t bring peace of mind or safety to an entire community. But if screaming will get people to listen, then maybe we should scream. We MUST get people to hear Alton Sterling’s name and to recognize the injustice in this, and the murder of every other unarmed black person at the hands of the United States police force.

This was, without a doubt, an issue of race. A black man was murdered in the south because he had a gun on his person. So where is the NRA to make a huge deal about his legal right to carry a fire arm? Why haven’t they immediately come to his defense and demanded the officers be arrested for violating their second amendment right? Paul Ryan made a public speech after Orlando about how America would not “compromise the constitution”. But I guess that sort of dedication is lost when a black man is holding the gun.

https://twitter.com/politico/status/750697460369125376

America has invaded other countries to prevent foreign governments and terrorist organizations from killing innocent citizens. And yet here we are, on our own soil, dealing with our own government, and nothing is being done to keep out citizens from being so brutality killed. 

Alton Sterling was murdered. He was murdered for no reason and I know I’m not the only person in the country right now who is terrified that he, his family, and his community will receive absolutely zero justice. While all lives matter, it is the black lives that are taken too quickly by violent means. As a white woman, I’ve never walked past a police office fearing for my life even though I know I’m not breaking any laws. And I never will. This is privilege, people. So don’t you dare undermine a movement that, God forbid, is working so fucking tirelessly to get the same privilege I was lucky enough to be born into. 

Talk about Alton Sterling. Speak his name so that those making an attempt to justify his death know that he is not just a body on the street. He is a man and his name is Alton Sterling.