Restore
Restorative action
Restorative justice
Justice
Peace
Forgiveness
Recovery
Transformation
Transformative justice
Shalom...how God always intended it before we messed it up.
In 2003 I heard a still small voice whisper "justice" and thus began my journey. Step in this direction. Just one step. Never knowing where it would take me, never knowing just how it would unfold. Losing the grace to take my market career to the successes I know it could go, and gaining the grace to surrender all to whatever God has in store. They say each journey of discovery starts with a single step. My single step took me into some real deep healing of some real deep wounding and I was truly born again.
In 2010 the still small voice got louder. Time for preparation, time for training, time for equipping, time for capacity building, time for getting serious. These next steps took me into mediation, coaching, leadership and trauma studies, culminating in this master's program in conflict. Was this the means to the end?
In 2012 the still small voice became persistent. Time to open your eyes to the things that grieve Him. Time to have my heart broken for what breaks His. Time to shred the sense of comfort and self righteousness, time to realize that staying home and being careful not to do evil is not synonymous with getting out there and doing good. Time to understand, finally and fully, that to love God means to love and pursue justice. To walk uprightly, be humble and to stand for those who can't. To love God means to do the good works He prepared, it means to look after the widows and the orphans, and to follow Him in His way of selfless service towards the poor and the oppressed, the despised and the discarded.
God, above all, despises injustice.
As I enter into the final stages of the preparation, He is beginning to give me glimpses and hints about what it has all been for...and somehow I'm not surprised that it has seemingly come back around full circle to helping and healing traumatized people.
My eyes have been opened...to kidnapping and sex trafficking of orphans , to mass war rape of widows and girls, to child soldiers...and I can no longer be silent. I am overwhelmed...this is too big, what can I possibly do, so I will do nothing...and I am underwhelmed...all I have to do is want to make a difference and I will. The overwhelming and the underwhelming remind me that this is God's purview, and I am only His instrument, and He can have His way with me, in me, through me, so long as He gives me the grace to DO (and knocks me upside the head the instant I think my doing is all that)
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has an inscription..."Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander".
I've been a victim and God's strength and power healed and transformed me. I've been a perpetrator and God's mercy and love healed and transformed me. Now it's time to let God's discipline and grace heal and transform my bystanding...so rather than stand by, I have the power to stand up or stand against or stand with or stand for.
Ken Wytsma wrote "We may not chose apathy, but when we choose anything other than love and justice, we get apathy by default".
God restores so we can restore. We restore so He can bring shalom.
Restorative justice
Justice
Peace
Forgiveness
Recovery
Transformation
Transformative justice
Shalom...how God always intended it before we messed it up.
In 2003 I heard a still small voice whisper "justice" and thus began my journey. Step in this direction. Just one step. Never knowing where it would take me, never knowing just how it would unfold. Losing the grace to take my market career to the successes I know it could go, and gaining the grace to surrender all to whatever God has in store. They say each journey of discovery starts with a single step. My single step took me into some real deep healing of some real deep wounding and I was truly born again.
In 2010 the still small voice got louder. Time for preparation, time for training, time for equipping, time for capacity building, time for getting serious. These next steps took me into mediation, coaching, leadership and trauma studies, culminating in this master's program in conflict. Was this the means to the end?
In 2012 the still small voice became persistent. Time to open your eyes to the things that grieve Him. Time to have my heart broken for what breaks His. Time to shred the sense of comfort and self righteousness, time to realize that staying home and being careful not to do evil is not synonymous with getting out there and doing good. Time to understand, finally and fully, that to love God means to love and pursue justice. To walk uprightly, be humble and to stand for those who can't. To love God means to do the good works He prepared, it means to look after the widows and the orphans, and to follow Him in His way of selfless service towards the poor and the oppressed, the despised and the discarded.
God, above all, despises injustice.
As I enter into the final stages of the preparation, He is beginning to give me glimpses and hints about what it has all been for...and somehow I'm not surprised that it has seemingly come back around full circle to helping and healing traumatized people.
My eyes have been opened...to kidnapping and sex trafficking of orphans , to mass war rape of widows and girls, to child soldiers...and I can no longer be silent. I am overwhelmed...this is too big, what can I possibly do, so I will do nothing...and I am underwhelmed...all I have to do is want to make a difference and I will. The overwhelming and the underwhelming remind me that this is God's purview, and I am only His instrument, and He can have His way with me, in me, through me, so long as He gives me the grace to DO (and knocks me upside the head the instant I think my doing is all that)
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has an inscription..."Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander".
I've been a victim and God's strength and power healed and transformed me. I've been a perpetrator and God's mercy and love healed and transformed me. Now it's time to let God's discipline and grace heal and transform my bystanding...so rather than stand by, I have the power to stand up or stand against or stand with or stand for.
Ken Wytsma wrote "We may not chose apathy, but when we choose anything other than love and justice, we get apathy by default".
God restores so we can restore. We restore so He can bring shalom.
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