I was bitter and I knew it.

Shortly after college, I joined the staff of Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ at the time). After attending a summer staff training, I returned to Baltimore to raise financial support—a process that was far too slow for my liking.

I moved back home with my parents (but not into their basement as the stereotype goes…only because they did not have a basement) and had to get a part-time job after a while to make ends meet. At some point, I sold my Honda Civic (a car I loved) and bought one of the cheapest cars I could find, about a 20-year-old Dodge B210. That car qualified for “classic” license plates, but those license plates would have been worth more than the car itself. The car had been in a couple of wrecks (at least), evidenced by the rear bumper slid about 6″ off-center and the driver’s seat facing about 11 o’clock instead of noon. But it ran. And I was glad to have it (at least after I pulled the pink stripe off of each side panel).

Then winter rolled around and I discovered another quirk of that car: no heat. And that is how I became bitter.

It was a freezing cold day in Baltimore and I was sitting in stop-and-go traffic on the way to my part-time job at Champs Sports. I was in my mid-twenties, called to be part of sharing the gospel through a Florida-based ministry, yet there I was living with my parents, struggling to make ends meet, working in a mall, and driving a clunker. I was freezing. I was bundled up in a coat and gloves and could see my breath with every exhale. I looked around and I saw people—warm people—driving cars—nice cars—and I became insanely bitter to Jonah 4 proportions.

I was seeking to live on mission for God, and this is how He rewarded me? All around me a bunch of pagans (I just knew they all had to be unbelievers!) were living in luxury (Heat! They actually had heat in their cars) and I was driving a Datsun B210 with a messed up bumper, messed up driver’s seat, and messed up heater.

So I joined my car in being messed up. I sat there and pouted and stewed asking a question Obadiah had centuries before: Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer?

Injustice Plagues the World

The world is full of injustice—both personal and systemic. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know; you can see injustice all around you every day, unless you close your eyes to it.

And perhaps that is the problem for some (many?) of us. We are able to turn a blind eye to many injustices in the world today. Many of us have the privilege of stepping in and out of injustices at a whim. I know I can easily do this.

As a man, I can choose to disengage from the injustice of sexism in our culture. As a white man, I can choose to disengage from the injustice of racism in our culture. As a middle class white man, I can choose to disengage from economic injustices in our culture. As an American, I can choose to disengage from the litany of injustices in other nations of the world.

When it is trendy to engage in speaking against injustices, I can engage, and then I can step right back out just as easily. What I need to do, though, is fight agains this and develop a consistent awareness of and anger toward injustices in the world. And I do not believe I am alone in this.

As Christians, We Are not Immune

I want to be careful not to make it sound like believers are immune to injustices—that they are all outside of us and we are shielded from them. While many are, not all are. We are not immune to injustice; we experience injustice either directly or indirectly.

This is at the heart of Obadiah’s question. Why do God’s people suffer when it seems that people of the world prosper?

The second half of that question is flawed because it comes from a biased lens. Sure it may look like the wicked prosper—and they might in some ways—but they surely do not in the one way that matters—being right with God. Our standard is not the car an unbeliever drives, or how successful he or she is at work, or how many vacations are posted on social media. The true standard to evaluate “prospering” is a person’s relationship with God. And in this area, an unbeliever is not prospering at all.

This is why my pouting and bitterness were so off that day. I was looking at the situation through a cracked lens. I was looking past the goodness of God to me and measuring goodness in terms of cars (most of which are by now, over 20 years later, scrap metal).

I was also equally wrong to assume that I deserved “better” from God. First, it was pretty spoiled of me to complain about having a possession most of the world lacks—a car—as I lived in far greater wealth than the majority of humans alive. God had provided that car—quirks and all—and I should have been grateful to have it and steward it for Him. (Which, by the way, I came to recognize after this. I look back fondly on that car today. God used it to teach me important truths.)

My adversity then (I hesitate to call it that today) was so minor and yet I threw a tantrum. I had to learn that I am not exempt from adversity and injustice. Why should I be shielded from that which the Father willed for the Son? It pleased God for Jesus to be crucified, the greatest injustice ever. As believers we should not expect a privilege Jesus lacked.

As Christians, We Endure Injustice with Joy as We Fight Injustice with Conviction

So how should we respond to injustice then? Two ways.

First, we should seek to endure injustice with joy, not with pouting. That might sound odd to be joyful as we experience injustice, but it is what we are commanded to do (see Philippians). We are not to find joy in the injustice itself, of course, but rather our God who is sovereign over it. This is what God taught Obadiah and it is what we need to understand too.

Second, we are to fight injustice with conviction. This begins with us choosing to engage with injustice more than we might be prone to do. It means developing greater sympathy and empathy for others and what they endure every day. It means living with greater humility and seeing every other person as an image bearer of God. And then it means stepping into what is going on around us. Is that risky? Sure is. Is that uncomfortable? Without a doubt. Might we say and do the wrong things out of ignorance at times. We probably will. But this is what we have been called to do. We’ve been called on to love people and to be salt and light in the world. We take a stand against injustice with conviction that such injustice is not of God and that God is sovereign over all and one day Jesus will return and end all such injustice.

It was the view of that strange compassion of the Saviour, moving him to die for his enemies, to bear double for all our sins, to taste death for every man; it was this view which gave him the impulse in every labor, which made all suffering light to him, and every commandment not grievous.” — Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843)

Robert Murray McCheyne, in The Works of the Late Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Carter, 1847), 179-80.

Preschool Tip: Injustice is an abstract concept that preschoolers will not grasp, so be careful not to speak in generalities or use words that are too advanced for your little ones. Instead, focus on what preschoolers do get—that sometimes people aren’t kind to others and that is wrong because God wants us to be kind to all people. But be sure to help your preschoolers understand that they are the ones who can be unkind at times (such as when they refuse to share a toy), but forgiveness is found in Jesus.

Kids Tip: Be sensitive to the injustices that your kids may experience every day. Remember that many of us can be blind to injustices around us, that are very real to others, including the kids you teach. If you wade into the waters of injustices in the world (and I encourage you to follow God’s leading in that direction), remember that what is abstract to you may not be abstract to a kid.

https://vimeo.com/showcase/6329953/video/363474349