love, anger, hope, injustice, joy-a few thoughts on Psalm 67

here are a few quotes that have made me stop and think in the last week...

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. - Barbara Kingsolver

We must talk about poverty, because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it. - Dorothy Day

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. - Martin Luther King Jr

If we had been holier people, we would have been angrier oftener. - John Templeton

...i just found the last one, but i like it. i fear the day when i fail to get angry in the face of injustice. even now i am frustrated because i feel as though the anger fades from me to quickly. but there is hope-God is really persistent (so long as we are listening). i often hear of injustice and want to change it, but then become overwhelmed or distracted and thus, not effective in finding a solution and thus, still part of the problem. but God is persistent, i continue to be convicted in my path to being a part of a (the?) solution. my heart is being changed and although i don't know what the future looks like i find myself building up the courage to face injustice issues, be they poverty, human trafficking, preventable disease, hunger, child labor, fair trade, etc. etc., that need to be fought. that said-i still don't know what that looks like, but i am growing. i am preparing my heart for the time in which God calls me to actively be a part of alleviating the suffering for those without a voice. not that i can't be active now or that i am not active. but i have hopes that God would take the little things i am learning and make them big things i am doing and if that is in the plan, then i want to be ready.

the relevant experience of the day that i hope articulates some of this a little more-today for youth group we did an art response to Psalm 67. we read the Psalm and Ric set aside about 20 minutes to draw/paint/color anything we felt led to in response to the passage. my interpretation of Psalm 67 is that its a picture of the kingdom yet to come. it speaks of all nations rejoicing in the harvest and that God rules on high. i fully believe that God rules on high and that there can be several types of harvests, but as far as there being enough food for every one and a joy that everyone experiences because of this provision, i don't think we are quite there. so i made my art, it had a sun shining on the earth, with a wheat harvest on the bottom, but there was a lot of space left and i couldn't articulate these feelings i was having about the fact that there are nations and people who aren't experiencing a full harvest, who don't have food on the table, who have almost no reason to sing for joy and i didn't just want to leave this unstated like i have in the past. it needed to be a part of my response. i mean, i know there is still reason for joy. we are loved. no matter how little food one might have there is still a God in heaven who loves us and thus reason to have joy, but i would have to imagine when your starving and don't have clean water to drink then you find yourself hoping a little harder for some tangible expression of that love. and i think you hope to God for those things, but doesn't God hope we respond to those needs as well? God calls us to respond to those needs to be the kingdom on heaven on earth and to bring this harvest. and so we must possess a "love and hope that bring joy," which was my attempt to articulate my desired response to this calling. to be love, to have hope (because sometimes its hard) and to bring joy because that's how we can make Psalm 67 a bit more of a reality.

i hope to reflect on these types of topics in the future because really, this is a lot of what i spend time thinking about. whether it's my response, the church's response, my part in shaping people's response, or whatever. so i hope we (my faithful few readers) can talk about it some more. so comment...on whatever...maybe some discussion will better help me shape this blog and keep from just word vomiting my thoughts and experiences.