Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love mercy, and walk humbly with your God?
In the bible ”justice,” like love, is an action word. Justice means to “make right”.
We are not faith based, but are faith inspired.
We like the translation that says, “love mercy”, but the meaning is more than what we usually think of as mercy. It is forgiveness, understanding, and again, is an action word – extending forgiveness, understanding and kindness.
“Walking humbly” is the part of the verse that leads us to be relationship makers and not charity givers, to let the community lead the acts of mercy, and share in them.
The descriptors of justice, mercy and humbleness led us to understand that:
- we are called to do justice in the world;
- we are called to share what we have with others;
- we are called to humbly walk with the members of our community.
We treat the symptoms of the problems of our world in many ways. In our beginning, this work involved the Blessing Box and filtered water station. Now, we are working with the community to educate about the environmental and social issues facing us, and the ways we can make changes to resolve those issues.
Living in Louisiana, we know climate change and environmental issues have had, do have, and will have such a huge impact on the people we are called to serve – the homeless, the working poor, the elderly, the disabled. And if we don’t begin to address these issues, we are spitting in the wind. If we leave out the ‘do justice’ instruction, we and our successors will continue to apply salve to the wounds again and again. We work to heal the systemic wounds of environmental, economic, social, and racial injustice in our communities.