He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8

I’m not going to pretend the things going on in our country right now are not happening.
So the uplift today is going to be a little different.
If you are struggling today …
if you are mourning the loss of someone you love,
or if you are dealing with an illness
or struggling through any other difficulty in your life –
I understand that this uplift may not be exactly what you need… and for that, I’m sorry.
If that is you today, I pray that you can still find the hope contained in this week’s uplift.

Regardless of your political position, if you are a follower of God there can be no mistaking the call in scripture to take care of the other.
Here are just a few examples:

Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Isaiah 1:17

Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Psalm 82:3

You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:19

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.
Matthew 25: 35

It’s kind of hard to ignore.
Even harder to ignore when in the Greek and Hebrew, the word translated as “stranger” is equivalent to “foreigner.”
It’s easy, in fact, easiest, to take care of ourselves and not worry about anyone else.
Especially when we’re scared or things feel overwhelming.
It becomes easier still to bury our collective heads in the sand and say there is nothing we can do when we are face-to-face with actions opposing the very heart of who we are.
What are we supposed to do?
How are we to react?
Today’s uplift text from Micah 6:8 reminds us clearly and without doubt we are to:
Do justice
Love kindness
Walk humbly.
These are the marks of a Christian.
This is what it looks like to follow God.
Even in dark times.
Even when we’re scared.
Even when the hits keep coming.  

Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly.

Doing justice means that those of us who have a voice, use it not on behalf of ourselves, but others. On behalf of those without a voice, and those without power.
Ever wonder why scripture uses widows and orphans as the ones we are called to care for?
They are the ones without power in Biblical times.
They are the ones without a voice.
Do justice.
Don’t just talk about it, don’t just post about it.
Do it.

 

Love kindness.
Glennon Doyle Melton once said that “If you’re not kind on the internet, you’re not kind.”
This is true in more places than just the internet.
We have to love kindness.
What does that mean?
It means we try to be kind first.
It means we always first ask ourselves before speaking, before posting, before acting: is this kind? Even when we disagree.
Maybe especially when we disagree.
Kindness is key.   

 

Walk humbly.
This one is the hardest.
Because to go about your daily life humbly is not easy.
Especially when we think we’re right.
Being humble is assigning ourselves lower importance.
And we don’t like to do that.  We like to be #1. On top.
Connected to those with power.
But that is not what it means to be humble.
We walk through each day making sure we are helping people go in front of us.
So we are called, by God, to go out into the world to find those without a voice and act on their behalf with kindness, always putting their needs above our own.
Oh. You know. Just that little thing.
It’s HARD.
But we can do it Uplifters.
I know we can.

Last Sunday at my church we talked about the disciples and how Jesus asked them to do exactly what they already knew how to do but just do it in a new way.
The same is true when God calls us to action.
You are good at things. You have gifts.
You have skills.
You have knowledge.
How can you use your voice to speak up and be kind for the benefit of someone else?
Let’s do it.
Today.
This isn’t about being democrat or republican, liberal or conservative.
This is a call of God on our lives, and how we respond matters.
Not to us, but to those who are waiting for our just, kind, humble response.
We can do this uplifters.