Recovering from injustice

8am.

I'm thinking.

For the first time in a long time my thoughts are centred on an injustice.

An injustice that wounded me deeply.

It was just a couple of years ago.

I won't relay the details.

Injustice.

I think about that word.

I try to simplify it in my head.

I shave it down the this. Injustice is unfairness that brings undeserved outcomes. Its seems to me to be a human thing.

And.

When you become a victim of that?

How do you recover?

Injustice is a powerful and dark force.

So powerful.

It can hurt you. Steal from you. Change you. It can kill you.

And when it touches you?

It puts you in a place that is difficult to escape from.

Its a place a bit like a prison.

I was touched badly by it.

Recently.

But.

I'm recovering.

It's possible.

Injustice is caused by selfishness, human selfishness or by indifferent decision making by other humans.

I think of the times in the past I've been unfair to others, because that's the truth. In those times I failed to see the bigger picture, like how it would affect people and situations around the person.

And that's what happened to me and to Dawn. Our ministry, our relationship, our family, our friends were all affected in some way.

Injustice is powerful.

I think of the first step I took to recovering my life.
I went to the cross.

I knelt there and spoke to Jesus about it.

I listened to his heart.

He gave me the next step right there.

I look at the cross. The injustice of it all.

And.

The next step just hits me.

Forgiveness.

One of the hardest things to do in the known human world.

Forgiveness.

I sit there.

I sit there full of bitterness, pain, carrying a sack full of the fallout from neglect, misuse, abuse, all the stuff that has not been corrected by law or fellow humans. A sack of confusion and hurt.

This sack of pain had been causing me to defend myself from those who I knew had treated me unfairly.

Forgiveness allows me to just leave the sack of pain right there at the cross.

There is no other way.

Forgiveness seems to open up the wounds and prepare them for healing.

In my heart I long for healing.

The alternative is destruction.

Injustice can cause a person to rear up and bring out the devastating weapons of revenge and pay back.

Those thoughts were powerful .

But its not the way forward.

Those weapons destroy.

So I rise from the seat of forgiveness and decide to go forward.

I think of the key to moving forward.

Its staying close to God.

And sticking to this command from Jeremiah.

This is what the Lord says. Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigners, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.  (Jeremiah 22:3-5)

And there lies an amazing exchange.

You begin to rise from the ashes of injustice and you're better equipped to defend others who have been unfairly treated. Not out of revenge. But out of closeness with God.

10am.

I feel ready to go to work.

To seek justice for the oppressed for those treated unfairly.

And.

I hear the voice of God for whatever reason asking me to blog this today.

Maybe.

Maybe someone's out there right now reading this, suffering from the fallout of injustice.

Listen.

Injustice is powerful .

But it doesn't have to beat you.

The power of injustice is but a pin prick compared to the infinite power of God who chooses this kind of fast, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke. To set the oppressed free and break every yoke. (Jeremiah 58:6)

Be free.

Its real.

Its in our grasp.

Perfectly Poured

10am.

Praying.

In Costa Coffee.

Praying in the midst of life.

There is something very surreal but special about it.

I  notice a Costa poster
It says Passion perfectly poured.'
Talking about their coffee.

That statement seeps into the prayers.

Starts to shape them.

I picture the cross.

All that Jesus endured for us.

Passion perfectly Poured.

And.

Something surfaces in my spirit.

Something simple.

Very.

Very.

Simple. 

As I watch the people around me.

As I see the blistering pace of rhe street outside.

My eyes and my heart lock in on our purpose.

If we dont recieve Gods passion perfectly poured.

If we don't get that?

How will they know?

How will they see?

How will they recieve?

It Dawned on me like honey off a shiny spoon.

when we recieve Gods passion.

We will reflect that passion.

To those who desperately need to recieve Gods passion perfectly poured.

So.

Hey.

Are you feeling His passion?

Are you recieving it perfectly poured?

Are you reflecting His astonishing passionate love to the world?

Cos.

It so needs it.

it really does.

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Glitchy

Last week I took possession of a new innovation in mobile technology.

The Jolla phone

A phone made and launched by a group of ex Nokia employees who decided to challenge the more established operating systems and create something more open source, and something fresh.

It has a completely new operating system called Sailfish.

Its a bit glitchy.

Its lacks the vastness of apps available to more established systems.

For now!

Jolla invites you to join its journey.

They allow you to join an online community and speak into the phones development .

I was sold.

I'm not a run of the mill type of person.

So a new journey despite the glitches and lack of apps excites me.

In fact .

I'm writing this post on my Jolla Phone.

I'm sitting across the road from the Salvation Army Hall in Ealing, London. I'm watching  builders at work on the hall. 

Transformation is happening in front of my eyes.

The start of a new journey.

A new adventure.

A new future for the Salvation Army in West London

Like my Jolla phone though.

Its just a start.

The phone has a few glitches. It lacks apps. It is not in any way like the more established systems.

But.

It has a whole new world of discovery stretching before it.

Just the way I like my Christianity.

In fact its the same for the West London Development Project.

A whole new world stretches before it.

Its a bit glitchy.

We may not have the applications the more established Salvation Army has, but we do have Jesus.

And what I love most about Jesus is his invitation.

His invite to a journey to discover a whole new world.

A world that stretches further than the eye can see.

Infinitely further.

Yeah there are glitches. Yeah there has to be frequent updates. Yeah there will be frustration.

But the joys far outweigh them.

Just think.

A whole new world.

He invites us through his astonishing grace.

Make sure you accept the invitation.

Its a journey no one should miss.

Zed

Zed was waiting outside the door of sanctuary that morning. I was in early. I'd had my coffee, Costa, straight black, extra hot. And I was looking forward to work. I love this part of my work. Setting up new churches.

I  love it.

And that morning heralded the start of a new day, praying, building relationships, doing business stuff, looking for the golden trail of Gods pathway.

And.

It started with an encounter with Zed.

Zed is a really great guy, 

I met him one night on the street here in London. He has some mental illness. He definitely hasn't washed that frequently, and he is one of those people who searches relentlessly for someone to talk to.

And.

He's a joy.

I was pleased to see him this morning. He just wanted a cup of tea and a chat. He talked about nothing in particular.

I listened.

He talked.

We had a cup of tea together.

He left.

He said said see me on Sunday morning.

A brief encounter.

To anyone looking in it doesn't seem like a significant thing. There is nothing exciting in that story you might say?

In itself you may be right.

A week later I had to take a coat back to The Salvation Army Shop. The zip was broken on a jacket they had sold me. I didn't have the receipt. The person serving me was not happy. They gave me a stern lecture about keeping receipts and kept me standing there while they decided what to do. As I was standing there a guy came in, a well known guy in SA brass band circles.  He had a CD that was not working properly and he had brought it back.  He didn't have a receipt either.  The person smiled at him and changed his CD straight away. I asked in a kindly way why this had happened?  The person said that I needed to understand that SP&S was the biggest brass band supplier in the UK.  They changed my coat in the end. I said bless you today.

I left.

I ended up going for a coffee on Piccadilly Circus.

I reflected on the Salvation Army.

I thought about priorities.

And.

My mind switched back to my brief encounter with Zed.

It makes my heart race in a good way.

When I think that I sat with someone who is desperately lonely. Listened to him,  prayed with him. Gave him a drink and some food. Isn't that a simple but precious thing? Isn't that a major mark of the Salvation Army? Isn't it its lifeblood? To embrace the broken and those who have nothing?

Isn't it?

I'd love for us to be known as a big supplier of Love to the lost any day over the biggest suppliers to the brass band world?

Would You?