The Injustice Issue

It’s not fair!

Oh how I love those words! I use them when I’m prevented from doing something I want or when I think someone else is getting an honor or privilege I think I deserve. But most often, I fall back on that phrase when I lose or don’t do as well on something as I think I should have.

Obviously, my sense of fairness is sometimes a little skewed—and a little selfish. But there are things in this world that aren’t fair. Things like discrimination and racism and poverty. It’s truly not right that we live in a world with such a marked difference between the haves and have-nots. It’s not fair that there are children in Africa who have been forced to serve as soldiers in a war they never wanted. It’s not fair that as I write this column, there are people being sold as modern-day slaves. There are things in this world that are unjust and wrong. But what do they have to do with us?

Everything, actually. As believers, we serve a God of love. He has shown us infinite love and mercy by giving up His Son so that He could have a relationship with each one of us. But so often, we downplay another characteristic of God: His justice. God is just. He does what is right, and He cannot accept the things that are wrong or sinful. And then there’s the example of Jesus who ate with sinners, touched lepers, and talked to the people everyone else shunned. God hates injustice; it is against His very character. And in Jesus, He’s shown us exactly how He wants our lives to look. We’re to be the people who fight injustice in this world. We’re supposed to be the ones who love our neighbors more than ourselves and put their needs before our own. If we truly lived like that, think about the difference it would make. Would there be as much poverty? Racism? Discrimination?

In this month’s issue of ec, that’s what we want to challenge you to think about and live out in your daily life. You’ll find that challenge in Lindsey Dugue’s cover story, “Fighting the Good Fight” on page 34. You’ll see it in Bryan Daniel’s Q&A about the time he spent in Uganda with Invisible Children. We’ll push you to put your focus on God and His character through devotions, Ryan Vermilyea’s article on page 8, and features about God’s view of success and eternity. It is our hope that when you close this issue, you’re changed. Not by anything we’ve written or edited, but by the God who created you—and everyone in this world—and loves each one of us dearly. We pray that you are changed by the God who always knew that having a relationship with us would cost Him dearly. And when you look at the world, we hope that you begin to see it through His eyes—as a world that can be radically changed by His love. And you have a part to play in that. Will you?