We are God's plan

I was blessed with the opportunity to see Gary Haugen, the founder of International Justice Mission, speak at Cherry Hills Community Church this past Sunday. Having read a number of his books, I feel pretty well acquainted with his view on justice and human rights but was very excited to experience his personality and charisma in person - and I was not the least bit disappointed. His lesson was a simple but pointed one and for this blog I'm going to try to summarize what he said for those who weren't able to see him speak as well. The following ideas are not mine, they are his alone and I only hope to do them some justice in my reiteration.

Mr. Haugen's speech began with a very candid assessment of the skepticism that many - and specifically the oppressed that his organization works with - have of God. This world experiences such incredible injustice and brutalities that it is hard for many to believe in a just and merciful God. The good news about injustice, Haugen said, is that God really does care about the oppressed and want to see justice done on his earth.

"You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it
into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the
helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, seek
out his wickedness until You find none. The Lord is King forever and ever;
nations have perished from His land. O Lord, You ahve heard the desire of the
humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will inclind your ear to vindicate
th orphan and the oppressed, so that man who is of the eart will no longer cause
terror." (Psalm 10:14-18, NASB)

So what is God's plan to combat evil, to cease this rampant injustice? The plan, answers Haugen, it turns out is us.

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow", entreats God of the Isrealites in Isaiah 1:16-17 (NASB).

With His strength and wisdom to guide us, we are to be the hands of Christ and the voice for the marginalized many. The trouble is that the problem looks so big and our individual ability to fight it looks so small. Responding to this, Mr. Haugen suggests that we look to when Jesus fed the 5,000, as told in the New Testament. Indeed the disciples were faced with an enormous problem and, at least in their opinion, not nearly enough resources to solve it. Jesus merely asked that they give to him what little they had - a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish - and by his divine power easily fed the crowd of thousands. Similarly, we are called to do the same. Just like the Israelites of old, God is pleading for us to uphold the cause of His people that are oppressed and downtrodden. You are my plan for righting injustice, He has said; and knowing that we alone are insufficient for such a large undertaking, he merely asks us to take what little we have to his Son so that we each can touch thousands in His name. For you financial foks, this is similar to the concept of leveraging your capital for larger returns; for believers this is central to the characteristics of faith, hope and trust.

Along those lines, I'll close with a quote from one of Gary Haugen's books - The Good News About Injustice: "As we recognize many cries for justice, we ask: 'Who is sufficient for these things?' We're reminded: 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.' With confidence in God, who loves justice and answers prayer, we can reply, 'Not that we are sufficient ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.'" For those of you interested in learning more about the biblical perspective of human rights, I strongly suggest reading this book.

The last week of training:
There are now just 6 days remaining until the 2010 Bolder Boulder and I have to admit that it's nice to be able to reduce my training. Although I have suffered from some knee and shin issues, I've been feeling pretty strong during my runs and my times have been improving. The last few days of training have primarily involved miles on the concrete but I have been mixing in some miles around the gym track and elliptical/stationary bike miles to mix up the exercise a bit. My focus this week is primarily on resting and recuperating so I don't expect to run more than 2ish miles at a time.

Don't forget, it's not too late to donate to the Love146 Tread on Trafficking campaign! Click here to go to my donation site.


Friday's miles: 6
Saturday's miles: 5
Yesterday's miles: 5.2
Today's miles: 5
Month-to-date miles: 91.8
Remaining miles: 8.2