Justice is not soft

But let justice run down like water, And righteousness like a mighty stream. Amos 5:24

We cannot sit silent when we are told
that justice is meant
to roll like a river
Rivers rage,
roaring with holy and righteous anger

Justice means we cannot accept
that something “just is” a certain way

We cannot accept that
porn fuelled by human trafficking is just is part of our sexuality
and that black women being shot their beds just is our reality

Justice is not soft
And justice is not silent

The Lord rained down fire to set his people free,
used a scared and stuttering man to declare
that his people would be set loose
even if it took parting the sea

So May I, in my stuttering, be faithful to the moment
in which I was created
Bold in my words not to prove I am righteous
but to declare that each Image Bearer is fated
to be free

And when darkness and chaos feel like they are drowning us all,
I remember that the the Word spoke into the void,
at the beginning setting things right
and so made in the Image of God
our call is to be light
justice is in our DNA

May I also step into the discords of justice,
knowing when to sit and listen,
May I learn to welcome the taste of the stones of ignorance,
harder to swallow than pride,
to feel the shocking cold plunge that wakes me
from the sleepy privilege I have denied.

I have to remind myself that
I am not the water nor the river of righteousness,
but just a pebble in the cascading flow
of Jesus’s justice
that is so much bigger than my two hands could ever hold
justice and mercy slip through my fingers

I may never get the balance right
so may I be firm in this fight
when it is my time speak
and let the rest rest on the yoke
of the Judge, Jury and Defender of the weak

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8

Mid-performance at the fundraising virtual coffeehouse for International Justice Mission at uOttawa

A fun lil background to this poem. I was just going to perform one piece for a justice themed coffeehouse earlier this week (this poem) but went for a run about an hour before it started and found a few lines that had been rolling around in my head for a couple of days suddenly start flowing out in a fully formed piece. I got home and sat on my bedroom floor to furiously type it into my notes app, shifted some things around with copy/paste in the Uber on the way there and performed it right away, no rehearsal, ha! Very fun when the Holy Spirit brings words to me like this 🙂