That's Not Fair! or Grace

Grace is one of those things that looks great in theory, but usually leaves me ranting at God in reality. Oh, sure, I love grace when it is directed at me. After all, I'm only human and I make lots of mistakes, so I need lots of grace. But sometimes I wish His grace was less available to others.
For example, there was a couple who were friends mine. I saw them starting to act a little cultish, so I confronted them. Rather than try to understand what I was saying, or work out our differences, or repent, they stopped returning my phone calls and refused to talk to me. My wife and I felt abandoned and wronged. We knew that God would punish them for their lack of love and their heresy. They would fail in their ministry objectives. They would lose money in their businesses. Instead they were successful and prosperous.
Needless to say I was angry at God. I wanted divine wrath for them, not divine grace. During this time I had a dream that the wife was in the hospital dying. In the dream I half heartedly prayed for her and she died. After she died God came to me and asked, "Is that punishment enough?" I woke up shaken.
Although I never would have said it out loud, in my heart I wanted them dead. That was the depth of my anger and hatred. But I wasn't just angry at them, I was angry at God. I was like the other son in the story of the prodigal son.
"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'" (Luke 15:28-30 TNIV)
I thought that by not punishing this couple God was saying that everything they did was okay with him. I wanted him to punish them so I could say, "See, I was right!" But God is not concerned with whether or not I am vindicated.
Grace is not fair. It covers people who live their whole lives sinless as well as those who sneak in at the last minute after a life time of sin. It covers those we love and jerks we don't. It covers you and it covers me. We have no choice about who God's grace covers. We do have the choice of whether or not we are going to join in on the grace party God is throwing, or if we are going to sit outside and grumble that the guest of honor should be punished.
Much grace!

Unanswered Prayer

One of the things that has bugged me most of my Christian life has been how it seems like God more readily, more miraculously answers the prayers of those in other countries. About a year ago I was struggling with this more than usual and at the same time preparing prayer activities for my church. As I did I reread Isaiah 58. It hit me hard, especially verses six and seven.

⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

What if the reason that a lot of our prayers go unanswered is not because of a lack of faith, or not saying the right words, or even because of what we typically view as sin in our lives, but because of our oppression of the poor and helpless?

Now most of us would not knowingly do any of these things, but what about the companies we buy from? Slave and near slave conditions occur throughout the world (yes, even here in the U.S.) and the fruits of this slave labor often end up on our tables. (http://www.ciw-online.org/index.html) Or on our backs.

Then there is the question of how our government deals with the world. It wages war that results in the death of innocent people. It uses sanctions that result in children dying. And these are just a few of the things we know about.

So, where do we fit in? If our shoes are made by a company that oppresses the poor (I'm talking to you Nike) then we are guilty by proxy. If our food is harvested by slaves then we are guilty of slavery. If our government kills innocent women and children and we do nothing to stop it we are guilty. And if we are guilty can we expect God to answer our prayers?

As Christians we must no longer be content to sing a few worship songs on Sunday and say that we are close to God. It is impossible to be close to God if we are not reaching out to and helping those he is near -- the broken hearted, the poor, the widow, the outcast, the foreigner (illegal or otherwise), the sick, the imprisoned. When we reach out to these that God has told us throughout scripture to reach out to, then we are close to God. When we stand up for the oppressed then our prayers are answered. When we love those God loves, then our lives and world is changed.