Justice Work and Humility

I am currently reading Kenneth Bailey’s Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes.  I feel really fortunate to be on a roll with books lately—I am both enjoying and being challenged by them.  I was compiling notes today on Bailey’s chapter on “The Parable of the Rich Fool” Found in Luke 12:13-21.  The following quote rings so true for my life regarding fighting for justice, “Another difficulty is that the person who fights for a just cause usually thinks that he or she is thereby a just person.  Everything such a person does in fighting for that cause usually becomes right in his or her eyes.  Woe to those who fall under the sway of this kind of self-created justice.  This parable presents a new perspective on the cry for justice.”  

This quote hits home for me!  The more I feel called to justice and the more I pursue it the more I realize how easy it is to become prideful and thereby believe that I am just.  The only way I have found to combat this is to ask for humility through prayer.  In fact, convincing myself to write this blog entry is helping me confirm how lacking I am in justice work—a definite answer to prayer in writing and sharing this.  

Sadly, I am thinking over the last week looking for a single example where an act of mine was intentionally done in the name of justice and I am drawing a blank.  I can think and have just thoughts, but they are really meaningless if they are not put into action.  This means it is time to start looking for and seizing opportunities to act on behalf of “the least of these.”