Five Lessons Learned in Seeking Justice

There was a knock at the front door, and a young boy answered to find a group of soldiers looking for his dad.

It was the early 1950s, and Japan had invaded Korea, detaining and killing journalists. The man they were looking for was a reporter at a local newspaper, and he was whisked away in the middle of the night never to be seen again. The young boy who answered the door was my dad. Several years later, his mother died of sickness, leaving him orphaned and alone at the age of eight.

My dad was never defined by his poverty and worked hard in school, washing chalkboards and delivering newspapers to scrape by. He eventually won a national award fixing cars which led to him being given an opportunity to immigrate to the United States. As the daughter of immigrants, my dad’s story was inspirational to me and his faith in Christ, which sustained him through many difficulties, became formational to how I understood and felt God’s loves for me.

While immigration is a part of my story, I never thought about it as a policy issue. In the middle of the debate in Congress over reforming our immigration laws, however, I met many immigrants who, similar to my dad, just needed a chance to build up their lives in a country they could call home. I found myself grappling with questions about justice and what it means to seek it for those whom Scripture says are particularly vulnerable - the alien, the stranger, the sojourner.

Having spent years engaging the faith community on this very question, and working in Washington, DC, where policies are decided impacting the many people I had come to know, there are 5 things I’ve learned while seeking justice.

1) Be vulnerable. Don’t be afraid to get personal and share the burdens God has given you. He gave you a voice, a personality, and experiences that no one else has, and that story is often what gives you the platform and ideas to speak. For me, I realized being the daughter of immigrants was not  a disadvantage or something to hide but something that could uniquely position me to talk about the many contributions immigrants make to our country, helping to focus what can be a controversial topic on an individual, personal story. Everyone has gone through pain and difficulties, and it’s only in our own mutual brokenness that our voice will have any clarity and authenticity.

2 )Collaboration is key. Collaborating with like-minded individuals who are in the fight with me, both young and old, gives me assurance that there is a vision greater than myself, and this vision was placed in the hearts of many by God. It reminds me that I am just one small piece in the greater puzzle that God is fitting together. We are not called by God to act alone. The sharing of resources (Act 2:44), the letters of encouragement from Paul to the Corinthians, Ephesians, etc. and support among the early church for the disciples, all demonstrate that in fellowship and shared suffering, we strengthen each other and become more effective. Jesus in fact sent out the disciples “two by two” as they were stronger together than apart, giving them the authority to “cast out evil spirits.” (Mark 6:7).

3) Use setbacks as opportunities. A setback can be a time for us to re-evaluate where we’re going and if we’re on the right track. Setbacks can be frustrating, but often force us to ask the question of whether our vision is really ours or God’s to begin with. It helps us to see that our visions and plans should be about God and for His glory alone. We have to keep giving room for God to show us that He’s still in it despite the setbacks, the personal attacks, and everything else that comes your way. While setbacks may mean we need to change direction, a lot of times setbacks mean God needs more time to prepare people to receive what He wants to accomplish through the actualization of the vision.

4) Be hopeful, not just faithful. Many of us are familiar with the parable of the talents, where the wealthy master commends the servants who sowed and invested his resources well, receiving the hard-earned, pleasing words of his master “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:23). For many of us, it’s a mantra that marks our ministries and professions- faithfulness. But being faithful can leave us feeling empty, frustrated, stressed, and burnt out- void of the hope that God desires for us.  Hope though must drive our vision because it’s the greatest motivator to believing that something is possible, that things will be better, that change will indeed come, and that people will be restored and renewed. In fact hope “does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5).

5) Prayer is not part of the battle, it’s the battle itself. Many of the injustices we are fighting against are rooted in sin and evil and are a result of spiritual strongholds. Scripture reminds us in Ephesians 6:12 that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” We often wage battle believing our strengths and capacities will break bondages in the earthly realm when in reality, any changes we want to affect in the earthly realm must be accompanied by changes in the spiritual realm. For God to break injustice and bring about His justice, we must pray and fast as much as we labor and toil.

Showing care and concern for the poor and vulnerable is a way to ultimately demonstrate God’s goodness to a hurt and broken world. At a time when a greater number of Christians are engaged in works of justice, I hope these 5 lessons will keep our witness true to Christ and make us more effective in how we impact the world, so our doing shapes our becoming more like Him.