Social Justice is Where Saints Go…. to Die to Self
“Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Our core belief is that God’s aim is to create an all-inclusive community of loving persons as in the Garden, with the Triune God himself at the center of this community as the prime Sustainer and the most glorious Inhabitant (Fellowship of the Burning Heart, p. 2). While there certainly are places/situations more in need of shalom, one of the most challenging one for me is the context in Chennai, India experienced in my recent visit.
My sister who is coordinating care for my dad who has Alzheimer’s seems to be tiring and the siblings are conflicted about how best to work together. At our family business, left in deep financial turmoil by family members, the current heads of our two sister businesses occupying the same building bitterly distrust each other. One is focused on justice and process without regard to team member welfare, while the other has embraced mercy, maybe at the cost of performance. I am the ‘shalom’ between, in need of discernment and wisdom. This is the business etched in my mind to support our foundation for the ages to come. Our God has provided and continues to provide.
30-miles away, in a poor neighborhood, at one of the after-school program sites run by our foundation, none of the thirty children are expected to go beyond 10th grade. These are children from homes where the parent perhaps makes about five dollars a day and live in a barely there home. Often girls are given away in arranged marriages when they reach fifteen to sixteen, and boys are expected to start to economically provide. Our center where these children meet daily, provides support for homework, study, mentoring and the gospel. There is hope and a smile in the eyes of these children. We run eight of these centers today and plan to expand to twenty-five by 2025.
Teachers at our centers often come from backgrounds where they were miraculously touched by God. Gopi, who later became Gopi Moses, a man from a poor, Hindu background experienced severe boils in his hands and legs causing unbearable pain when he was young. After an attempted suicide, he was guided by a pastor to pray “Jesus’ blood brings victory” and was miraculously healed. He then brought the gospel to Rajan, the pastor of this one-room church where our program meets, where Rajan’s sister teaches and mentors these children. There is an inexplicable beauty and shalom in this room.
When I give this to God and pray and reflect on shalom in this context, I now more clearly see that social justice is where the saints go to die, die to self, and paradoxically receive life. Unless a seed falls to the ground and dies it is of little use.
