I will never forget a time in grade school when one girl in my class, the leader influencer of us all, decided we all needed to not like another girl.  I didn’t understand why.  Growing up going to church with parents who were dedicated to God and lived their lives for God, and who taught me to be kind to all people cause this new situation to trouble me. It was the first time that my church world collided with my school world that included some who didn’t know God or go to church.  I thought everyone went to church, loved Jesus, and tried to do what He taught us to be and do as God’s child.  Ah, but some do not.  My life was simple faith and instruction for a simple time in the “last century” in which I lived as a fifth grader in that moment.

I had a choice to make. I could follow the leader of the mean girls who told all on the playground and in the classroom (before the Teacher arrived), that Janice had cooties and we needed a spray to make sure we didn’t get them from her; or I could follow what I had been taught from home and church about how to treat others. What I chose for a day or two was to stand back, watch, and be silent. But as the hate escalated, I saw how Janice felt when accused and mocked and I couldn’t take it any longer.  She was innocent and left alone to bear the slander.  The look in her eyes troubled my heart of conviction.

With a bit of fear, and then prayer, coupled with determination; I asked the leader who was my friend before all this happened—why.  Why are we doing this? Can you explain it to me, because I don’t get it.  What has Janice actually done to deserve making fun of her? We all dress pretty much alike, so it can’t be that. We all have to come here to learn, so it can’t be that.  We all are girls who need and want friends.  Janice needs a friend but instead we are told to hate her, so can you tell me why?  The leader could not.  I felt God’s Presence, so I asked more questions. The more I spoke; the more God gave me to say that day.  I will never forget it.  I loved all the girls in my class, especially the leader who I admired for her ability to pull us together as a group to do good things.  Why just decide one day to push another girl out?  She didn’t have answer—odd because most of the time she did!  She listened quietly and simply said, “I don’t know.”  Nothing else was said.

In the days to come, I watched as my leader friend befriended Janice!  So much so, that I thought our Teacher must have noticed and spoke to the girls privately.  Janice came to school with a big smile on her face that changed her whole countenance! I almost didn’t recognize her. I was so happy for her!  I watched and learned how a leader could change the actions of mean girls into girls with a heart of kindness with their own attitude adjustment.  A leader of influence can do that in minutes when their heart transforms.  

Maybe it was these early experiences in life that God used to lead me into teaching with a heart’s desire to make a difference in the lives of those marginalized for whatever reason.  God sees our hearts. God knows our stories.  Our Just God sees all injustice and provides a Way through it all.  That ultimate Way provided is called Jesus. Jesus took all the injustices of the world produced by our sins and nailed them to the cross.  And what does God require of us? The prophet Micah, who spoke for God, before the Messiah came to earth centuries later repeated, “Seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase extends the thought with;

  “But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
    what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
    be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
    take God seriously.” Micah 6:8, The Message                             

David’s song on the run expresses these thoughts while being pursued!

Psalm 7, The Message

 ^1-2 God! God! I am running to you for dear life;
    the chase is wild.
If they catch me, I’m finished:
    ripped to shreds by foes fierce as lions,
    dragged into the forest and left
    unlooked for, unremembered.

^3-5 God, if I’ve done what they say—
    betrayed my friends,
    ripped off my enemies—
If my hands are really that dirty,
    let them get me, walk all over me,
    leave me flat on my face in the dirt.

^6-8 Stand up, God; pit your holy fury
    against my furious enemies.
Wake up, God. My accusers have packed
    the courtroom; it’s judgment time.
Take your place on the bench, reach for your gavel,
    throw out the false charges against me.
I’m ready, confident in your verdict:
    “Innocent.”

^9-11 Close the book on Evil, God,
    but publish your mandate for us.
You get us ready for life:
    you probe for our soft spots,
    you knock off our rough edges.
And I’m feeling so fit, so safe:
    made right, kept right.
God in solemn honor does things right,
    but his nerves are sandpapered raw.

^11-13 Nobody gets by with anything.
    God is already in action—
Sword honed on his whetstone,
    bow strung, arrow on the string,
Lethal weapons in hand,
    each arrow a flaming missile.

¹⁴ Look at that guy!
    He had sex with sin,
    he’s pregnant with evil.
Oh, look! He’s having
    the baby—a Lie-Baby!

^15-16 See that man shoveling day after day,
    digging, then concealing, his man-trap
    down that lonely stretch of road?
Go back and look again—you’ll see him in it headfirst,
    legs waving in the breeze.
That’s what happens:
    mischief backfires;
    violence boomerangs.

¹⁷ I’m thanking God, who makes things right.
I’m singing the fame of heaven-high God.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

David is “praying, singing, praising, and calling out to God on the run” from his enemies led by King Saul.  The enemy wrongly accuses and slanders David to all who will listen with words of hate coupled with the terror of pursuit with the goal to kill David. David learned early in life, being ostracized by his brothers, that life is not fair.  But he also was taught that God is just and will provide a Way through the unfairness to provide justice. While in pursuit from the Enemy, David was always in pursuit of the God he loved and trusted completely.  David looked to God who is more than enough until his problems become less.  “God is bigger than Goliath who defiles God with his words!”  This is the heart cry of David who ran after the heart of God. 

Living by faith, however, David also learns he must wait on God’s perfect timing.

Yes, David is a runner, are we? Are we running to God for dear life?

FOCUS IN:  God is just, the One and Only who gives Life eternal to all who believe. God is faithful through all generations. God is Truth, proven by His love and actions as written in His Word from Genesis to Revelation.  His Son, Jesus, God made flesh who walked among humanity on earth, was/is/and always will be the Way, Truth, and Life!

God’s love is unchanging and forever, just like God who never changes in His character of perfect love. Nothing can separate us from His love. To know love is to know God who is love.  (1 John 4)

God is merciful and full of grace.  There is nothing we have done that He will not forgive in Jesus Name. Jesus is our Hope—God’s arrangement, plan, with power demonstrated by His Love—who resurrected Jesus from death to life in victory over evil!  All done for all who believe!  Our God is amazing!  Trust Him!  He knows our story and our heart.  God provides a justice for the injustice of this world.  He provides justice for us when we repent of our sins.  It’s like this, God is just to forgive us completely “just as if we had never sinned”. We are justified fully—our sins to be remembered no more—our screensavers of life wiped clean by Him who loves and restores us to Life!

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” —Jesus, John 11:25-26

Lord,

I trust you with my whole life because You are Life to me.  Yes, I believe. 

In Jesus Name, Amen