A Life That Glows

This past Sunday we concluded our series A Life That Glows, where we looked at life that God wants for us, as expressed by the prophet Micah, "to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God." (Micah 6:8). I do not believe that this process is meant to be linear, first justice, then mercy, then humble walking. I think that they are interconnected. That said, if they were linear, I suspect they would flow backward from a humble walking with God that results, as we experience his mercy, in a love for mercy, and then out of this love of mercy the courage to do justice, to be justice for those who have been denied justice. And then, this process would wrap around again, where we’d experience in the doing of justice the humbling presence of Jesus more fully, and then be able to love mercy more deeply, etc. Justice is not the end, the end is Jesus; In doing justice and loving mercy we get more of him. (“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” Matthew 25:40)).

The process of moving towards justice is a process of moving from service toward solidarity, from a ministry to, toward a ministry with. To do this requires time, entering their world, multiple connections, willingness to have our assumptions challenged, and mentors. Our journey toward justice means requires education, exposure, listening, moving, community, and reflection. Again, not necessarily linearly, but education is a good place to start (very closely followed and along with the others). So, I wanted to give you some resources of places to start your education.

Here are a few books you could read:

LetJustice Roll Down by John Perkins, Generous Justice by Tim Keller, Strengthto Love by Martin Luther King, Jr., Sub-merge by John Hayes, and IrresistibleRevolution by Shane Claiborne to start. 

Websites and organizations you could visit include the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) and Sojourners.

Let me close with a quote from Robert D. Lupton,’s book Theirs is the Kingdom. He writes,

I want to serve truly worthy poor people. The problem is they're hard to find. Someone onour staff thought he remembered seeing one back in 1976 but can't remember for sure. Someone else remind me that maybe to be truly poor means to be priceless, inpatient, manipulative, Desperate, grasping at every straw, and clutching the immediate with little energy left for future plans. But truly worthy? Are any of us truly worthy? 

That question is the root of the process of beginning to walk humbly, love mercy and do justice. 

Peace, hope and love

Doug