a little with righteousness.

The last two month spent studying at Redeemer University College have been very good for me. While at times it is stressful and labor intensive, it is good to be challenged and to stretch my mind, discovering new things and learning more about God and His creation. I've learned about the Bible, I've learned about history, I've learned about society, I've learned how to keep myself healthy, I've learned how to read, I've re-learned that I am supposed to love people, I've been refreshed, I've learned about myself.

I've met a lot of extremely interesting and passionate people. There is something going on at Redeemer that cannot be easily defined. There is something in the air, a vibrancy of the people there that humbles, encourages, and thrills you all at the same time. God is at work in the hearts of the people at Redeemer, chipping away at their hard exteriors, shaping them and making them into His tools.

We talk about social injustice and sweat shops, about the environment, about reaching out in our communities. How do we deal with the Third World (Or the "two-thirds" world as the missionary Viv Grig has taught me to call it.)? What is the Christian response to the issues that challenge our world in such a monumental way? How can we be relevant in todays culture? How are we different and how are we actively pursuing truth and justice?

It has been very encouraging for me to be among people who feel the same way and don't hesitate to challenge me on my beliefs and opinions. It would be ignorant of me to suggest that we are the only Christians who think about these issues. But the more I talk about it with people, the more I am confronted by the church communities wide-spread ignorance or worse yet indifference of these issues. What does this say to the world? How can we attract people to the Church in North America if our lifestyles look exactly the same as the world around us? We make ourselves irrelevant.

Now I think I'm going to have to justify a few things here. One could argue that we are different from the world. We don't work on Sundays and go to Church once or twice instead. We don't swear. We don't go to strip clubs. We don't watch crappy movies (for the most part). We don't have wild parties (for the most part). We give some money to the poor. We don't have sex with each other.
Sure, those things are wonderfully things to do. I don't want to belittle them at all, they are all very admirable and we should continue to practice them. I am convinced, however, that our lives should be much more different then they are. We are set apart for holiness.

When I express desire to live differently, to be a truly conscientious buyer, to reduce my environmental impact, to rely completely on God to provide and simply be a tool in His hands and go wherever and do whatever He calls me to do, my passion is largely dismissed by the older generation as youthful idealism and somewhat foolish. They say that I'll grow up one day and recognize that I can't change the world, that my effort will not make a difference. Once I get a family that I have to provide for I will bow to the pressure and live like the rest of North America, shopping at Wal-Mart and saving up for my next vacation.
I hope I never do. I pray I never turn a blind eye to the oppression that my lifestyle is creating. Maybe I never will make a difference, but at least my conscience will be clear.
The Bible speaks very passionately about oppression and the judgment that awaits those who turn a blind eye and participate in it:

"Better a little with righteousness
than much gain with injustice."
- Proverbs 16:8

"learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed. ^[a]
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow."
-Isaiah 1:17

"Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

2 to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?

4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.
Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised."
- Isaiah 10:1-4

There are many more examples from Isaiah that speak about the terrible judgment that awaits those who oppress the poor. I don't think many people in North America realize that this is exactly what we are doing by participating in our consumerist culture.

The most convicting passage I found comes from James 5:1-6.

1"Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.^[a] 6You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you."

I want to be different from the world around me. I want to live in a way that does not oppress my brothers and sisters in India and Africa and South America. I want to truly be a steward of God's creation, being sensitive to the environment. I want to use the resources that God has given me to serve Him in everything I do, in everything I buy, in everything I spend my time on. I am not my own. Nothing I own is mine.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

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