Around and Around and Around We Go~

Ok, so I was talking to a friend last night. My friend is a dear person, and is convinced that if we just love people more, they will be ok... I said we must land on justice, for them to be ok... So- either of us got this figured out?

As we walked along, she with her two children in hand, I pointed out a man in the crowd around us and said, "What if that man was coming at you with intent to murder us?" (yes, extreme, but bear with me for sake of discussion) "If you love that person- offer your love to him, will he most likely stop because you say 'Stop! because of the love I have for you'?"

Or, if he is coming toward you with malice attempt- justice should be served by halting him bodily, possibly with force?

Could it possibly be that we too often put love and justice at polarized ends of a spectrum, when in fact they are more dimensionally interrelated to each other.

I would agree with my friend, that at the core- there must be love. But in this old world, I know it will take more than my love alone- I just don't have enough in me. In fact, when it comes down to it- I have a very natural core of selfishness and sin... Even the most lovely of people will run out of enough 'love' to cover all the ills of the world. If one approaches life in this world with an 'it's ok, I love you anyway' approach to everything- I guarantee the person will run into difficulty. In our country, someone like this may even be labeled a 'vulnerable adult'.

So that is where the love I am talking about must come from Someone bigger than myself- From not only Someone bigger than the universe- but how bout Someone who created the universe- Someone who just spoke- and there was light! Oh, yah- that Someone really knows how to love in a bigger-than-big way!

Hmmm, so I started out though with love and justice- Back to justice now- The scene with the man coming at us! What, in this case really was the most loving thing to do-- 'lovingly' let him create mayhem and destruction- or, stop him, justly, keeping him and others from harm? Now, again- if I were stepping in with a personal sense of justice- why I could go along all through the crowd and probably find some injustice in each person- and at the least, verbally reprimand them, or bodily make my point- All in the name of 'justice'. But what if the approach to justice I take is from the One who is Just, Righteous, and I proceed according to His Way- I will be motivated and acting out of .......ready..

...Love! Ta-Da! Full circle.

Justice, according to His Way, is a extension of love-- Note that it is brought with the hand of mercy- and although the motivation for His justice is love, it is through the hand of mercy. Mercy is when we don't get what we really deserve. What we deserve is punishment for sin- that is justice. He then extends us mercy- for who can see mercy clearly until one sees his sin, and faces justice?

"A simpler and more familiar solution for the problem of how God can be just
and still justify the unjust is found in the Christian doctrine of redemption.
It is that, through the work of Christ in atonement, justice is not violated but
satisfied when God spares a sinner. Redemptive theology teaches that mercy does
not become effective toward a man until justice has done its work. The just
penalty for sin was exacted when Christ our Substitute died for us on the cross.
However unpleasant this may sound to the ear of the natural man, it has ever
been sweet to the ear of faith. Millions have been morally a spiritually
transformed by this message, have lived lives of great moral power, and died at
last peacdfully trusting in it." AW Tozer

Our finite minds tend more toward compartmentalizing things- instead of thinking of things, at least, on a continuum- or maybe further, as dimensional spheres... either way- God is infinitely, beautifully, wonderfully, complex. His precepts are interrelated, intricately woven into the fabric of this universe He created.

My friend and I were both wrong, and both right. Wrong, if we were to shortsightedly and staunchly looked, and held tightly, to 'our point of view'. Right, when we both stepped back from ourselves, and looked together through the eyes of God-- to find the 'bigger picture', the more complete picture- that we were both right, but just too shortsighted in view.

This God of ours is a God of complexity and dimension beyond anything we can hope to understand during in this mortal life. But what joy when He gives us even a glimpse of understanding His Ways-- Letting us see a glimpse of His Design. And He delights in sharing His Mystery with the ones He loves, and who love Him~

My friend and I no longer stand apart, on this 'issue'; in fact, it is no longer an 'issue'. That is another great Truth about who God is- Along with being a Redeemer- He longs for, and provides for, Reconciliation- unto Himself, and makes away of Reconciliation possible for people to people.

Hhmm- it does start with love, justice, mercy, love... His.

... it ends with love, justice, mercy, love...His.