A staff meeting this week got me really fired up about advocating for the poor.
Roughly one-third of the students at my school are "free or reduced lunch" which means their family qualifies with an income below the American poverty line. These students score disproportionately lower than their peers on both state tests and earning passing grades in core classes. And yet, strategies to support students in poverty are sparing.
"Who will speak for the poor?"
These students sometimes advocate for themselves. "Um, I don't have a pencil" or "the internet was cut this week." They don't often voice the stories behind the stories, "We're living out of the car this week."
How can you write a lab report if you don't know where you're going to sleep tonight?
My reaction was to get angry. I crafted a passionate, impromptu lunchroom speech to my sympathetic 3rd lunch colleagues about our need for training about engaging students in poverty. I envisioned myself a champion of the poor, an advocate for justice.
Later at home that evening, though, I realized that I am part of the problem. My students know to no longer ask for extra pencils because "I spent over $100 on pens and pencils this year and they have all been broken, lost, or thrown away." My students know that the peanut butter sandwiches promised at the beginning of the year for anyone needing a snack have been vetoed for "student allergy reasons."
How can I send support letters to friends and family when I'm not actively giving to the poor in my own school? What does it look like to serve these students? A hand-up, not a hand-out.
Thinking about my desire for justice, my heart was pulled back to the cross. Justice, true justice, means that I earned death. The penalty for sin. Jesus acts justly, but transcends our simplified views of cause and effect. His restoration, transformation, is about more than justice.
Mercy restores relationship. Mercy allows me to rest at Jesus' feet. Mercy makes me right with the Father.
So, walking into another week of school, I hope to re-focus. To serve my students (all of them, poor and otherwise) I want to live with an overflow of mercy.
Lord, give me grace to be merciful. Help me surrender the desire for justice as I see fit and take up your larger view of restoration. Show me how to walk in mercy.
My mercy and justice are coming soon. My salvation is on the way. My strong arm will bring justice to the nations. All distant lands will look to me and wait in hope for my powerful arm.- Isaiah 51:5
Sunday, April 29, 2012
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Ephesians 5
Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. Neither should there be vulgar speech, foolish talk, or coarse jesting – all of which are out of character – but rather thanksgiving. For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – and find out what pleases the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For the things they do in secret are shameful even to mention. But all things being exposed by the light are made evident. For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says:
“Awake, O sleeper!
Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you!”
Therefore be very careful how you live – not as unwise but as wise, taking advantage of every opportunity, because the days are evil. For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is. And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body. But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one has ever hated his own body but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church, for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is great – but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you must also love his own wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
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