Stephen
Terry, Director
God's
Love of Justice
Commentary
for the February 8, 2025, Sabbath School Lesson
"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but
whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and
night. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the
wicked leads to destruction." Psalm 1:1-2,6,
NIV
Long ago, I met up with someone
I had grown up with but had not seen in many years. While I had graduated high
school, spent several years in the army, and attended college to obtain a
degree, he had dropped out of high school, gotten involved with drugs and had drifted
through life over all those years. He had been abused as a child, and this
affected his outlook to the point he felt society owed him something for that
trauma. Nonetheless, he admitted that what he had been doing had not been
working out for him and he was looking for something better. I shared that my
time in the army helped me figure out a direction for my life. That would be an
avenue he could explore. He said that he had already explored that option, and
because of his drug history, the military was not willing to accept him as an
enlistee.
I suggested that if that step
were closed, then maybe he could skip that and go to college and earn a marketable
degree. He said that he had no money to attend college. I suggested he visit a
college financial aid office and see what they could do for him. In my
experience, they were usually willing to help put together a financial aid
package to make a college education possible. He felt it would take too long to
get a degree. I advised that he had to go through the next four or five years
anyway. How he chose to experience those years could make a difference between
whether his life continues as it is going now or he discovers opportunities
that had not been open to him before. He said he would think about it, and we
parted ways.
When I next met up with him, he
had married and had children. He had never followed up with the education
advice, and he told me that he was still just barely scraping by, surviving on food
stamps and what little work he was able to find. I asked him what kind of work
he was doing, and he showed me pictures. Those pictures were examples of beautiful
finish carpentry he had done. I shared with him how beautiful the work was and
asked him how he learned such useful and artistic skills. He told me that a
wealthy man wanted carpentry done and was complaining about how much money journeymen
carpenters were wanting to charge him for the work. My friend commiserated with
him and after a few beers they agreed to let him try for a more affordable
price. With patience and a willingness to ask for input from others on how to
complete the job, he had a happy customer, some experience, and a reference for
future work. I told him how proud I was of how well he was doing, but he told
me he was not doing that well. While the first job was a favor for a friend, he
found that he was not earning enough to support his family with the other jobs
he had completed. Because his prices were low, he had lots of work, but he just
was not making it.
Since I had worked as a painting
contractor while attending college, I reviewed with him how he was preparing
his bids. It turned out that he was covering the cost of the materials well
enough, but he was not keeping track of the amount of labor he did and was
charging far too little for it. I told him you need to charge for an equitable
number of hours, or he would be working for free. He felt he would not get all
the jobs he was getting if he did that as price was the only reason they were
coming to him. I shared with him the experience my first wife had. She was an excellent
seamstress and took in sewing jobs while I was in college. She had made two
three-piece suits for me, a beautiful wool overcoat for herself and dresses for
her and shirts for me. But she was not happy working with the public as a
seamstress as her customers talked down her work and constantly quibbled about
the price. She said she felt she had to keep the price low, or she would lose
even those customers. I told her if she continued that, those would be the only
kind of customers she would ever have. I told her to raise her prices, and she
would find she would attract a better class of customers that would appreciate
her work. She followed that advice and had more customers than she could handle
because those who appreciated her work told their friends, something the
quibbling customers never did except to bad mouth her. My friend felt that
advice was helpful and promised to try it.
Each of us has challenging
experiences in life. It is easy to succumb to the feeling that no one has had
to deal with the challenges that we have had to face. But when we do that, we
rob ourselves of happiness we might otherwise have had. It can be very tempting
to cross our arms in a huff and refuse to move on with our lives until the
world says it is sorry. But the world does not care. It will move on with or without
us. It is tempting to think that those who appear more blessed than us
financially, physically, or geographically have an unfair advantage and
therefore owe us something in return. But to feel that way without evidence
that they have somehow disadvantaged us is not just. It is true that some have
advanced themselves at the expense of others, but when we feel that is the only
reason we are not prospering, it may be time to examine our lives and seek out
advice about how to move forward productively. It may not be as helpful to ask
our peers as it would be to find those who have achieved what we would like to
achieve and ask for mentoring to get there.
Something that some might
consider an adjunct to all of this but which I consider essential is developing
a relationship with Christ. Life throws many challenges at us even when we are
on the right path to success. When we have developed a faith-based life, it is
easier to have faith in the process. When I was applying for work after
college, interviewers advised me that the degree major was less important than
the knowledge that I could stick with something for the years it took to
graduate while overcoming obstacles along the way. Because of the amount of
time it took to achieve competency in some fields, they felt it was important
they not expend tens of thousands of dollars bringing someone up to the level
of self-actualized competency if they were just going to quit rather than work
to overcome the challenges they would certainly face. This is a just
expectation.
That expectation is not limited
to the work arena. Our friends rightly have similar expectations, just as we
also do of them. And it does not end there. Forming a relationship with Jesus
means that we agree to certain expectations as well. Although he is far more
willing to give of his time for our advancement than even our closest friends
or family are able to do, he still expects loyalty as a just expectation of
that relationship. Isn't that really high on the list of what any friends expect
of one another? Nonetheless there probably is not an ocean big enough to hold a
record of all the times friends have proven unfaithful. But friendship with
Jesus is unique. While the male and female friends we have had in our lives may
not forgive us when we wander and prove unfaithful, Jesus does not condemn us
for our perfidy. Instead, he is the first to say, "You see why that went wrong.
Shall we try again?" Love is like that. Some would portray God as a being who
is just waiting for people to stumble so he can torture and abuse them. Jesus
came to put the lie to that characterization. God takes no delight in the
struggles of those who choose to go their own way and refuse his offer of a relationship
founded in love and kindness. Humanity walked away from God in the beginning,
but God has not given up on the idea that we might yet walk together as we did
in Eden. When we feel we have been wronged, we turn our back on the one who has
betrayed us so. However, despite every justifiable provocation to do so, God
has not because he is love. (1
John 4:8)