Closing Thoughts

I write this at 2:45 am, as Sam and the children are snoozing away and I’m still on Thai time, wide awake.  I haven’t had much time to process my time there, but several strong impressions linger.

The folks at FBR and Partners are really serious.  They risk their lives– not only from land mines and the Burmese army, but from malaria and dengue– on a daily basis for the cause of justice.  Their rangers hike for months at a time, hauling half their weight on their backs, so that they can document the abuses happening there and provide life-saving medical treatment and education.  (One of them told me that she wished she had cut off the handle of her toothbrush so she wouldn’t have had to carry the extra weight around.)  It makes me want to do something.

What can I do?  I can pray: for them, for their safety and courage.  For leaders to repent and take justice more seriously than power.  Honestly, if leadership were truly about servanthood, instead of about power, we’d see a lot more justice in this world.

Proverbs 31:8-9: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

I can work hard for justice in my little corner of the world, too.  Justice in the form of health care for everyone.  Justice in the form of standing up for the downtrodden, and speaking up against exploitation.  And I can raise my little people to be bringers of justice.  Pray-ers for peace.  Do-ers of kindness.