We are taking this week’s study to do something I have never done before. We are going to slowly and deliberately look at just one verse of the Bible. For one week straight. Which seems a bit absurd, but also really fun. Because this one verse is just FULL to the brim. It’s Micah 6:8. Many of us are quite familiar with it: “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” And it’s the acting justly part that I couldn’t get away from as my Black and brown brothers and sisters over the past several years have shared their experiences to me and in public forums that I began to see how we are starving to participate in and to experience justice. So many people—myself included—think of justice as keeping the law, like NOT speeding. And then we think about the consequences in place if we do speed—like a ticket we must pay. So in terms of justice, it’s a job we assign to the government, the law enforcement, the people in charge. Many of us lean away from the work of justice, taking a backseat and leaving the bulk of the work to others because maybe we feel underqualified, or we feel uncomfortable, or maybe even apathetic.

But friends, taking a back seat on justice is an approach born out of our own starvation. When we walk away from the work of justice, we have forgotten. We have forgotten Who justice belongs to and what our part is in it. Justice is so much bigger and more beautiful than a tiny government or a little court system! Justice is God’s idea. He is just, and he loves justice. This week, let’s talk about how we are starved for justice.