The Sunday paper. Our next door neighbors get it delivered every week. It was just a newspaper. But yesterday, it became the centerpiece of a powerful reminder from God.
Yesterday was Sunday. My wife was looking out the window, watching a lady out for a walk as she approached our next door neighbor’s driveway, where their Sunday newspaper was. The paper was laying on the ground in the middle of their driveway. As the woman passed by, she kicked the paper out onto the edge of the road and kept walking. That was strange. My wife quickly surmised that this woman’s plan was to steal the paper on her way back. After the initial “kick” of the paper, the woman looked back over her shoulder at our neighbor’s house a number of times. Weird.
After she passed, my wife immediately began to think out loud, as to what she should do about this. Clearly, she is not one to sit idly by and watch a crime take place.
My wife is a superhero. I’m not kidding.
I was content to simply watch the drama unfold; to watch what exactly this walking woman’s plan was. My wife? Not so big on just watching. My wife sprung into action with an unmistakable “she must be stopped” look in her eyes.
So, the initial plan was to walk out, pick up the newspaper and walk it up to the neighbor’s front porch, out of the reach of paper-snatcher. But just as she walked outside, the woman had made her way back and was now only steps away from the newspaper, still lying right where she kicked it.
Just as she passed our house, on the way to the newspaper, my wife walked out the front door in a none-too-obvious “Somebody’s watching” noise-making fashion. Startled, the woman looked at my wife, looked back down at the ground, and kept on walking….newspaperless.
Ah, my wife the vigilante. It’s no wonder I’m head over heels for this woman.
Justice. It’s what people want to see. When we see injustice, we wince, we boil, and sometimes we even act; springing into action to make the unjust just.
What my wife did reminded me that as Christ-followers, we’re to look EVERYWHERE for injustice and not merely be spectators (like yours truly), but activists. We are to be those who are actively involved in setting the wrong right. We are not called to sit in the upstairs window (like I did), but rather engage the injustice and put a stop to it (like my wife did).
Amos 5:24 says it well:
“But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Maybe that cloak of righteousness that Christ puts on us is meant to double as a cape.
Up, up and away.
jerrythinks. 