Justice

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King Jr.

If you don't experience injustice on a daily basis for either yourself or someone else, you are an oppressor. Those who sense injustice deeply for others without acting are self occupied and unsatisfied.

Consider the life of Martin Luther King Jr. He grew up labelled a colored or worse. He grew up counted as an oppressed person. He was forced to drink from a different fountain than whites. He was forced to go to different schools. But he did not become self occupied and self pitying. Instead, to borrow a phrase from Teddy Rosevelt, he spent himself in worthy causes. It was in seeking justice for others that Martin Luther King overcame his own personal injustice even in his own lifetime. As a matter of fact in his last speech he said this:

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

He did not get there with his people but rather before them. He climbed the mountain by fighting on behalf of others injustices rather than fighting for his own. In that he became of a giant among men. Is this what is meant by Psalms 58:6-8

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.


If so then what injustice are you hanging on to? Who will stand to accuse you of being silent when you should have spoken?

Driving in Reverse

There is this curious spot in the Republic of Georgia where if you put your car in neutral it roles uphill.

In recent years there has been a trend of suburbanites moving back to the city. I was at a party in my inner city community that was attended by many folks who have recently moved back into the city. Many had found the charms of old neighborhoods with wide streets and parks irresistable. Many have found the hope of buying low and selling high exciting. They are young couples mostly from the ages of 25 to 40. In the sixties the trend was the exact opposite.

Many fled the cities to leave for the suburbs. People were excited to experience more solitude. They wanted better schools and less pollution from factories. They wanted to escape from the neighborhoods where the crime rate was rising. When they left their incomes which went to support the neighborhoods they were living in went with them. Schools systems got worse. Crime increased more. Jobs were scarce. Hope went with them to the suburbs and left the inner city to decay.

Unfortunately, there was also a racial dimension to this migrations. Many of the inner cities became poor African American communities. Many of the suburbs became white communities. Now it seems that the car is going back up hill. It doesn't seem to make sense but the same "type" of people who abandonded the city are now returning to it.

The question is...what will history tell of this time? Will it look back to say that once again the white return flight displaced the poor and moved the mariginal to the margins of the cities? One thing that has been a huge surprise to me is that many of those moving back into the cities are of the Christian faith. Many of those low income families living within the city are also of the Christian faith. But it is like the ways they practice their faith don't connect with each other. In fact, it is almost as if they are practing two seperate faith systems.

What if the two groups could find a meeting place and learn to worship and live together?

The Return of the Jedi

I chose this Title because Star Wars is a set of movies that just wnen you thought they were gone they came out with a whole new series. I realize that I haven't written on this blog in quite a while. Its been just under two years in fact. These two years have helped me discover quite a bit about life. I have learned things about myself. I've learned things about others. And I think I've become a deeper person over this time. So today I just felt like writing. I felt like saying something. I didn't feel like being clever or creative just expressing myself. When I write I feel like I am touching a deeper part of myself. That I am communicating with people something that until I begin to type remains only a feeling. At times when I write and I want to express something I have to really focus and then the sentence just comes forward. And then the Thesis just writes itself. It isn't that I have to come up with something to write as much as I have to get inside and find that something that is already written within. It is that clarity that makes writing fun.

The thing is it would be great if life were a bit more like writing. It would be great if there was a bit more clarity as to that thing which is our purpose. And I really don't know if just focusing harder is enough to get us there. I think the equivalent to focusing harder is learning to endure for a dream. I know suffering and sacrifice are key elements to attaining purpose. But to achieve a noble dream perhaps it takes more than a moment of suffering or sacrifice. To achieve a noble dream, that which is worthy of the life we have been given, takes full commitment. I believe it is at that moment that the Thesis writes itself.

Piper Against the American Dream

"You don't want to be always sitting high in your SUV dropping nickels into other people's dreams."

John Piper
Passion '07
Quoted in Christianity Today

Phil Laeger's New Release

Hi:

I want everyone to go check out Phil's new, FREE, music release on his websites. You can see what Phil has to say about it as well as the websites where you can find it below.

I want you to go there because Phil is an extremely gifted guy and his lyrics and music WILL bless your socks off!

Jason



Hey guys,

I'm writing to let you know that my new album, Pride & Glory, Truth &
Beauty, is now available online @ any of the following websites:

www.phillaeger.com
www.saytunes.com/bands/phillaeger
www.myspace.com/laeger
www.purevolume.com/phillaeger

Recently, I was at a prayer and fasting retreat where the speaker
pointed out that one of the constant themes of the New Testament is
the Apostle Paul's prayer for more light, both for himself and for
those he had led to Christ.

This album is a prayer for light. The songs on it were written as
far back as almost 10 years, and as recently as just a few months
ago. They're held together by the theme of sight. It is a prayer
that I am still praying, a prayer that all of us are called to pray
as Christians. It is a prayer put in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
It is the prayer for more light from the Lord.

Light for our pride. Because God resists the proud but gives grace
to the humble.
Light to see His glory. Because the glory of God is all around us
and yet our sin hides Him from us.
Light to know His truth. Because even our best reasoning cannot
bring us to the revelation of God.
Light to see His beauty. Because even the faintest glimpse will
awaken our senses and set us in our right minds.

I hope you enjoy the album. I hope that you are blessed as you
listen and that it encourages you to press in even further in your
quest to know Him.

"May God give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation" so that you
can see His glory, know His truth and experience His beauty.

Grace and more grace to you,

Phil

Great Quote

"And don't let anyone make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant. If you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I am God."

Martin Luther King Jr.

MountainTop

Last week I took a trip to Gatlinburg to pick out a hotel for our young adult retreat.

On the way home I drove directly over the top of the smoky mountains. A storm had come through the day before. You may have heard about this storm producing tornadoes and the lives that were lost in Alabama and North Carolina.

Well when the storm passed over the Smoky Mountains it had quite a different effect. The trees were left with a layer of whiteness. The limbs crisscrossed creating various patterns of white lines.

All along the rodeside people had stopped and were taking pictures. I had ran into this serendipitously. At the bottom of the mountain the temps had been over 50. My lightweight jacket was laying in the backseat where it had been most of the day.

Being from the south I don't get to see much snow. I have even vowed to phil that I am going to Boston when it snows. I couldn't resist stopping. I couldn't resist making a snowball. And as I was all by myself I couldn't resist throwing that snowball at my car.

Snow, I am convinced, was made to be shared. It creates a feeling of excitement and love. I wanted to call my wife but I had no signal. So I spent the time with my creator.

In the Republic of Georgia they have word, "ertat" which means "alone--together". So I spent this time ertat with God. I screamed into the snowy woods, into God's ears, into God's heart, "GORGEOUS!"

The question came to mind, "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?" I scratched my head. I thought. I looked down and a piece of my hair had fallen on the seat. I didn't even feel it fall out. Then I remembered God knows every hair on my head. As the hair came loose he knew it.

As I drove away I resolved that God is always there to hear it. He knows the depths of our beings. He is gorgeous. And we can dance with Him when there is no one else around.