Just a mom in an unjust world

Today isn't the first time I have been faced with this: what do I do in the face of the terrible injustice in the world?

I just received word that in one of the villages we often travel to for teaching and discipleship, four community members have been arrested by local police for inspecting their own land.  I don't know the details, but it has to do with the illegal logging that they are trying to stop on their lands, and the whole situation seems steeped in greed, corruption and racism.

My heart feels raw as I think about my dear friends in that community, I remember their tears over past tragedies.  Just last week a friend from that community mentioned, "the hard situation our community went through."  She couldn't even saw the words.  To talk about the death of her uncle, the chief was too painful.  The community is still grieving.

When will this end?  Is greed really the most powerful thing on earth?  Will we ever "learn to live together as brothers" as Martin Luther Kind, Jr. dreamed?

I sit at home as my girls splash in their wading pool.  Cooling off from the heat of this dry season day, they remain oblivious to so much of what goes on in this world which is bleeding with the results of man's sin.  And what am I to do?  I am not a lawyer, a millionaire, or a government official. I cannot move the powers that be, or make justice happen. The truth is, I do not know what to do. I am just a mom, a missionary, a friend.

I know that I will pray with my friends, and I will hear them cry out to God for their community, and for justice to be done.  I can ask others to pray.  I can weep with those who weep.  What else can I do?  I can drop by a meal for the family of a man who is tirelessly fighting for the rights of his people. And can bring by a bag of clothes for his daughter.  I can be friend to his wife.  I can tell them to not give up, to trust in God, the only one who is truly just. I can walk with them as they struggle to know how to forgive, as the fight to keep hate out of their hearts.

And I can ask God to show me what else to do.  Because what is the point of saying I am against injustice, if I do nothing when faced with it?  I feel like we are David facing Goliath, and yet we have no sling, and we haven't killed any bears.