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Jesus Justice: So Easy a Five-Year-Old Can Do It
By Jeremy | May 15, 2007
Part 1 of 5
[This is reprinted from the May-June issue of the Journal of Student Ministries.]Justice is so easy even a five-year-old can do it. It took me a long time to figure that out. Even though I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime committed to the idea of justice, determined to live for justice, I really couldn’t define it until last year. This latest journey toward better understanding why Jesus loves justice began roughly last March when I was asked to sit on a social justice panel at the 2006 Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI), and the moderator told the panelists he would begin by asking us to define it. In preparation I reminisced about a political theory class in which the professor began every lecture with the same questionâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“What is justice?â€Ââ€â€without ever arriving at an answer. That class was no different than the politicized rhetoric from pro-war/anti-war, pro-abortion/anti-abortion, pro-gay/anti-gay, pro-green/anti-green crusaders who describe justice so differently. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography came to mind: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced...But I know it when I see it.†That’s exactly how I felt about justice: “I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.†Then Bart Campolo answered a similar question on his blog; it’s the most satisfying definition I’ve seen: “Social justice, as I understand it, is when everybody gets what he or she truly needs in order to realize his or her fullest potential as a lover of God and as a lover of other people.†But still I yearned for more, something that spoke of justice as an action word. So I answered the question on the panel by acknowledging my difficulty and ultimately dancing around it. At the same time, World Vision, Fuller Seminary, and UYWI asked me to facilitate a yearlong social justice initiative in which defining it was critical to the project. I said yes, knowing full well that I’d serve the process more as a student than an expert. Later I was asked to contribute two chapters on the subject to an upcoming book, Deep Justice in a Broken World (Youth Specialties/Zondervan). Again I agreed, despite feeling unqualified to help clarify for others what was still so mushy for me. Then Judahâ€â€my son, my museâ€â€intervened. He helped me make sense of it all. During our August vacation, Judah wanted to know why I needed to take a break from playtime to participate on a conference call. I told him about the book project. He asked what it was about. I mentioned justice. He didn’t understand. Could I please explain what justice was? Uh, no I couldn’t. But as Judah probed more, it finally came to me. One of those a-ha moments that only a child, who was still five at the time, can inspire. “Justice,†I told him, “is about righting wrongs.†It’s why Jesus came – to right the wrongs of sin in our lives in order to restore relationship with Him -- and He expects no less from us. While Judah and I spoke that afternoon, I remembered that this wasn’t the first time he helped me make sense of justice. [Part 2 coming next week.]sex real scenes movieamatuer movietaboo movies incestmovie list zemanova veronicahentai movie galleries freedaily porn movies freeschoolgirl lesbian moviesmovies portñl femdom Map
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