“all progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.” -mlk

this quote resounded deeply with me - especially in respect to fighting global slavery.

as most of you know, fighting slavery is something i’m incredibly passionate about.  

but fighting slavery is ridiculously complicated and difficult.  

do you really tell the lower middle class mom that her kids should only wear second hand clothes if their only other financially viable option is walmart?  at the same time, do you tell families in the global south that, yes, they do have to work for next to nothing so that our lower middle class children don’t have to wear second hand clothes?  even as their kids are wearing third of fourth or fifth hand clothes and starving?

recently a friend of mine who works with a christian children’s ministry called “awana” told me that they were having a special night at awana where the kids would receive chocolates for each of the bible verses they memorized.  the amazing part of this: over 100 little kids would be memorizing upwards of five scripture verses that week! (now, don’t ask me how many of them would actually remember what they memorized two weeks later...aaand, ask me later about my many philosophical problems with awana...)  the heart-breaking part of this: there is no way this small church program could afford that much fairly-traded chocolate.

my friend and i actually spent time trying to brainstorm how to fix this situation.

ultimately, we came up with nothing. so, kids memorized verses about our God of love and justice and then feasted on the fruit of the labor of slaves - many of them other christian children - from coté d’ivoire.

but fighting slavery is ridiculously complicated and difficult.  

so, what do we do?  if we’re honest, we look at the problem that has integrated itself into every nook and cranny of our lives, we survey the long list of scripture verses that talk about how God cares for the poor, the downtrodden, the enslaved.  we do this quickly, take a deep breath, and then divert our eyes and never look back.

there is no discernible way to completely extract ourselves from the pervertedly pervasive world of slavery so we ignore it.  and when someone brings it up to us, we hearken back to old snl sketches and degrade them by saying “waaa-waaa, debbie downer!” and we laugh an uncomfortable and unholy laugh.  there’s really little else we can do, because, again, there is no discernible way to completely extract ourselves from systems of injustice and slavery in our broken world.

i think we do this with so many things.  we can’t imagine a world without road rage, so we decide it’s not really a big deal.  we can’t imagine a world without lies, so we decide God’s probably ok with some lies - possibly with most.  we can’t imagine a world without divorce, so we decide it would be legalistic to say God hates divorce.  we can’t imagine a world without war so we decide isaiah’s prophecies about a peaceful world aren’t meant to be taken literally but simply spiritually.

our imaginations are small.  our problems are big.  every solution seems to lead to a new problem.  so rather than rising to God’s standards of love and justice, we modify love to niceness and justice to status quo and are surprised when the world doesn’t believe in or see the need for the God of niceness and status quo.

so, i’m trying something new.  i’m leaning into the concept of a God who is entirely intollerant of anything shy of perfection.  i’m envisioning a God whose anger burns white hot over global slavery.  i’m envisioning a God who we should rightly fear as we invest more money in war than in the social needs of our country.  i’m envisioning a God who is infinitely dismayed at the droves of lower middle class moms who shop at walmart and ignore the plight of kids just like theirs in the global south.  i am envisioning a God who wept as children exchanged his precious words of scripture for ill-gotten chocolate.

i’m leaning into the picture of a God who was so bitterly angry about each of these things that he demanded death to make it right.  

and, i’m remembering a God who is not only justice but love - a God who demanded death to make these transgressions right - but who came down to our gritty, complicated, inextricably difficult reality and died to relieve the anger, disappointment, and heart-brokenness we brought to Him through our selfishness.

i’m worshipping the God of love and justice - not the God of niceness and status quo.

in that way, it is never ok to buy something made by slaves.  it is certainly not ok to incentivize our children to study God’s word with candy produced by slaves.

but little we do is ever ok.  when we fail at love and justice, it doesn’t minimize God’s love and justice - it magnifies his costly grace.

so here’s the world i’d love to see us inhabit: a world where no wrong is ever ok and every injustice is always a failure - but where God’s grace is abundant and healing and enables us to get up, brush ourselves off after that pack of m&m’s on a tough day, and try again.

imagine what would happen if Christ-followers not only preached a God of love and justice and grace, but lived as though it were true - in humility and in sincere attempts to lean into love and justice...even when it is ridiculously complicated and difficult.

“all progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.”  ...and, God has grace for each and every problem.

there is no discernible way to completely extract ourselves from the pervertedly pervasive world of slavery...so, let’s keep trying.  let’s keep worshipping a God of perfect love and justice and joyfully landing on his costly grace when we fall.