In “The Justice Primer,” Brandon Hatmaker writes:“Let’s be honest for a moment. Knowing what we know about God, is there any reason to doubt that he wants us to serve the poor? … if we are to be true disciples of Christ, our value of mission must increase.”
A true commitment to justice and the poor draws us closer to God. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is quoted as saying:
“The agonizing moments through which I have passed during the last few years have also drawn me closer to God … God has been profoundly real to me in recent years. In the midst of lonely days and dreary nights I have heard an inner voice saying, ‘Lo I will be with you.’ When the chains of fear and the manacles of frustration have all but stymied my efforts, I have felt the power of God transforming the fatigue of despair into the buoyancy of hope. I am convinced that the universe is under the control of a loving purpose, and that in the struggle for righteousness humanity has cosmic relationship. Behind the harsh appearances of the world there is abenign power. … In the truest sense of the word, God is a living God. In God there is feeling and will, responsive to the deepest yearnings of the human heart. This God both evokes and answers prayer.” (See William D. Watley, Roots of Resistance: The Nonviolent Ethic of Martin Luther King. Jr., p. 24-25.)
Let us pray that our commitment to the mission of Jesus Christ calls us into service to the poor and the cause of justice. Let us take on the poverty of Christ that we too might serve the living God.