prayers for justice

Recently, I was thinking about the kinds of things I typically ask God for, or that I hear people ask God for. A lot of them boil down to something to the effect of reducing suffering now. For example, heal the ill friend, comfort the mourning family, or strengthen the weak will. Recently, I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about mercy, or meeting immediate needs, versus justice, or final and permanent victory over sin, death, and suffering. I realized that I don’t often pray for justice, and I rarely use that term in my prayer life.

Many church ministries are based around mercy, but few, if any, around justice. For example, we may address hunger by preparing meals and donating to food banks, but we often don't work to end hunger once and for all (treat yourself to a thought experiment: how can we achieve a permanent end to hunger?).

So, from my humble perspective, it looks like the way we do ministry effects even our prayer life, or at least mine. I do work, and then that's how I pray. That's actually backwards. Talking with God should change who I am, and send me out to do things God's way. I'll never get to justice if I'm only praying for mercy.

I have to pause here: mercy is necessary and even required, and is no less important than justice. As a mentor of mine, Susan, says, conjunctions are important. Looking at Micah 6:8 and Matthew 23:23, does it say mercy or justice or faith? No, the conjunction is and! Balance is crucial.

From a recent sermon, I gleaned an interesting and unique point about prayers for justice. Jesus tells us that prayers for justice by God’s chosen ones will be answered, and quickly! When I learn something like that, I feel challenged to try it. It's like God is saying to me, "Go ahead, take me up on my promises. Try me."

Well, I sat back, and in a sense wondered how I should pray for justice! Wow, that sounds silly as I type it, but I landed there after thinking about this for a bit. I've certainly prayed for peace in war torn areas of the world and similar things, but, to me, that's so impersonal. I asked God to help me think about ways to pray for justice, and he answered that prayer right away. Well, that's too personal to share here, but just know and remember that God is faithful.

Will you take God up on this promise today? Pick a small thing, some small injustice that you've experienced, and place it in God's hands. Further, share the result with a brother or sister to the glory of God.

Prayer requests:

• God's truth about justice would be ever clearer to me
• I grow as a balanced agent for justice, mercy, and faith in Jesus' name

A matter of faith

I'm on the NY subway, wondering how I would ever get around this city without my smartphone. Ok, yeah, a map would do the trick; let's leave that aside for the moment. Living and spending time in the city and public transit has helped me to realize how useful the phone can be. It also helped me realize how much faith I put in it. Navigating the city underground, I trust that this tiny black box with its glowing screen is going to help me reach the goal. And it almost never fails!

Life is kind of like navigating a new city. So many directions to go, and so many different ways to get there. A guide sure would be helpful! Thank God for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit knows "the city" and helps us reach the goal and all the best stops along the way.

The challenge is to put even more faith in the Spirit than I do in my phone! How easy it is to trust a simple thing like a phone; how much riskier it is to do so with a God who has plans which might look different than what we want or what we're comfortable with. How much do I trust God? How much do you trust God? It's a matter of trust. It's a matter of faith.

Evangelism: easier than ever

Now that I’ve become a missionary, it’s easier than ever to share my faith. In my previous life as an engineering graduate student, I didn't see many opportunities to talk about God and how he was working in and shaping my life. Church was one of my escapes from work – work that burdened and exhausted me to the point of leaving without my PhD. As my interest in grad school waned, my faith waxed brightly. After a series of contacts, by God’s grace, I applied for and became a missionary serving in Washington, DC for two years. My work includes designing and facilitating educational experiences based around a variety of social issues like poverty, immigration, and human trafficking. I’m finding my interest in engineering to be ever-present, and I hope to find ways to connect this with my walk in the Way which leads to life, joining my God given gifts and graces with God’s mercy and justice.

I can’t help but share this elevator pitch version of my call story when someone asks where I come from, why I’m in DC, or why the switch from engineering. I attended a gathering at a friend’s house over the weekend, and I must have told my call story ten or more times to complete strangers. The sharing just happens, and the words spill right out of my mouth. Why? Because my work and my faith are synergistic instead of mutually exclusive. I don't even have to try, and I find myself talking about my faith. It's an out-of-the-box, surprising story (who leaves engineering and goes into ministry?), and there is no honest way I can tell this story and leave God out of it.

One empty pocket in the story is that it focuses on me and neglects Jesus’ story, which is something I want to work on with God. Nonetheless, my experiences in story form are a gift that has given me the ability to share my faith with others, and help people understand better the kinds of things that actually matter to God.

How will I use this gift to glorify God and to advance God’s Kingdom? This is a question I want to ask myself a little more often. How will you, the reader, use your life and vocation to do the same, and how might we partner in this mission?

Prayer requests:

• Continued strength, vision, and openness as I explore a variety of social issues, which are new and complex.
• Open eyes to see and follow the movements of the Holy Spirit in my work.
• Smooth transitions for all who are moving around at Church and Society in the coming months.

Feeling like a disciple

I think I finally get it. After years of critique of those crazy Twelve, both my own and listening to others, I've become as one of them. Jesus called the disciples out of their chosen careers - some fishing, some tax collecting - and into a much different walk. How did they respond during the initial portions of that walk? Lots of ways we like to poke fun at. They argued about who is the greatest and asked who would sit at the right hand of Jesus in his kingdom. They had times of confusion and times of little faith. They fell asleep as Christ perspired what were like great drops of blood. They ran away and denied Jesus in his darkest hour. Maybe Thomas is the one we like to give the hardest time of all, when he declares that he won't believe in the risen Christ until he physically touches Jesus' crucifixion wounds.

I can relate. Six months ago, I was in engineering, and God was calling me. Just three months ago, I was wrapping things up at the lab, preparing for my new adventure with Jesus. Today, I'm serving as a missionary in our Nation's Capitol. As I begin this new walk, sometimes I just don't get it. The things I read or the things people say don't always connect with my experience. Sometimes I'm stubborn, and sometimes I shut down for a little bit. I probably fall asleep on or walk away from Jesus all the time.

I appreciate the persistence of the disciples. Even when they didn't get it, they hung in there. I appreciate the patience of Jesus. Even when they didn't get it, he hung in there.

I hope I'm a person who can hang in there, knowing I'm not always going to get it, and asking Jesus for crazy things like being able to see his wounds, and experience his life, death, and resurrection, in ways which are tangible to me. He'll meet me there, because that's how Jesus rolls.

The story so far

Wow, over two weeks since my last entry! Since then, I've been keeping busy. Here's the Cliff Notes version of what I've been up to:

• Moved back home for a few weeks, the longest time I've been home in several years. I had lots of quality time with my family, and I got to cook on the grill frequently!
• Through a combination of searching Craigslist and showing up for a couple days in person, I landed a great apartment in a good neighborhood, with easy-going roommates, and within easy bike range from the office and grocery store. God's provision never ceases to amaze me.
• While visiting the city, I toured what I would call a pretty crummy apartment. No A/C, kind of a sketchy neighborhood, and fleas - dead fleas all over the counter (bug bombed I guess?), and I left the place with itchy ankles. I realized I'm quite privileged to have the option of choosing not to live there.
• Enjoyed the great hospitality of my supervisor and his family.
• Moved in to my new place.
• Played Ultimate Frisbee on the National Mall!
• Attended a great worship service at Capitol Hill UMC.
• Biked EVERYWHERE (this is a really good thing).

Housing was a bit of a challenge, but other than that, I feel like I've done all the easy things, or all of the things that come naturally to me - meeting people, finding fun things to do, commuting on my bike.

That leaves the more difficult things. You know, those mysterious things I've missed out on over the past years while I studied engineering, those things I really haven't given more than a ounce or two of thought to. My first few days at the office have given me a little taste of that. One of my first hints was when I could only name 3 or 4 causes of poverty off the top of my head. That was today, after having talked about it with my other supervisor a few days ago, and surely having talked about it at training. How do people get into poverty, how do they get out, and how do we stop poverty from happening? Something tells me I'll be thinking about these questions a lot more over the next two years.

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Lord,
Thanks for leading me to victory in small ways, and thanks for your victory.
Thanks for fleabag apartments, flea bites on the ankles, and the realization that people live in those places and are glad.
Thanks for the help and hospitality of strangers and those I barely know.
Thanks for your provision in your perfect timing.
Prepare me for tough, uncomfortable teachings.
Take my heart of stone, and give me a heart of flesh.
Give me the mind and spirit to realize that all I have is for You and for restoring your creation.
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
Amen.

Farewell, Michigan

Living simply lesson #1: I have too much stuff. Somehow, I knew it before packing, but as I emptied out the closets and cupboards of the old 1034 mancave after five years of accumulating, it seemed the rooms filled up faster than the storage spaces emptied. Was this some kind of crazy twist on the fish and loaves account in Matthew? How could I have so much stuff that my team of five dapper lads could barely squeeze it all into a pickup truck and my car?

Packing felt awful. Having to scrounge and dumpster dive for empty cardboard boxes. Thrice. Missing out on some last drops of quality time with friends because I had to pack.

On the other hand, it felt wonderful to leave all of my furniture behind, give a box full of plates to a friend, and take a pile of things to my church to donate. Feeling bad to squirrel away, feeling good to give away. Things look so much different in the Kingdom.

I packed up and shipped out just over a week ago now. Leaving was hard. I was already pulling out of the parking lot when I realized that day would hold my last Sunday worship at Ann Arbor First and the last time I would see my many cherished Michigan friends in a long time. The door had shut on my apartment of five years by the time I realized it would likely be the last time I would walk through it. Driving down Route 23, I realized it could be the last time I would make that five hour drive (not that I'll miss the Ohio Turnpike too much). Michigan, it's been real!

Behind, I leave the whips and chains/Before me spreads sweet Freedom's plains/Farewell, farewell

Psalm 118

Ok, ok. The Lord hath made all the Daves, true. But this Dave was made by the Lord, hand-crafted to enjoy life abundant and to strive for a future with hope. Whether you're a Dave or not, you were made by God with a purpose too! With a name inspired by a t-shirt and and the 118th Psalm, and brought to you by the internet and technology, welcome to my web log.

Right now, I'm starting this blog as I also start a new chapter of my life: becoming a US-2 Young Adult Missionary through the United Methodist Church. I recently returned from training and was commissioned as a missionary on August 12. I am looking forward to beginning my service at the General Board of Church and Society in Washington, DC in just a few short weeks!

Prayer requests:

• God's continued presence and provision as I transition from Michigan to Pennsylvania, and then to DC, and that my fellow Young Adult Missionaries would also enjoy God's movements as they transition.
• An open heart and mind for learning about social issues, and a soft heart and tongue for times when I may disagree.
• Opportunities to discern vocationally during this time of service - will I connect my engineering with my faith, or do something altogether new?