You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you. Trust Him now for everything, and see if He does not do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever have asked or thought, not according to your power or capacity, but according to His own mighty power, that will work in you all the good pleasure of His most blessed will. You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of it?
~Hannah Whitall Smith
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in Matthew 5:38-42
Oh beloved, we in the West live in a culture that is absolutely attuned to the right to justice. We will, at the blink of an eye, assert our right to our rights. We will lash out for the freedom to be free and do what we want. The battle cry of the revolution, “Don’t Tread On Me!” still resonates in our soul.
And most surely, humans have rights. These rights have been endowed upon us by our Creator. And indeed they are rights to a dream worth a fight – even to the death.
But do we, perhaps, miss the point of the whole thing sometimes? The rights of humans; the right to live free and to pursue happiness have been given to us by a Higher Power. They are not rights that we maintain, in and of ourselves. They are, in fact, a gift bought with the very Blood of G_d through the death of His Son on our behalf.
So, when someone in our sphere wrongs us, what should we do? Could this writer be so bold as to suggest that we simply rejoice?
What? Yeah, rejoice. What have we got to lose?
Much.
Can we see it? In simply rejoicing at an injustice, we are giving credence to the truth that we can really not do anything anyway to force right action onto another. And, we are yielding to the wondrous reality that there is a righteous G_d who can be fully trusted to bring about justice in our existence.
And in reckoning these truths true we lose much of the pain, much of the anxiety, much of the worry, much of the sadness, much of the despair that is so much a part of our lives when we try to maintain some illusion of control and self-manifested justice.
And in doing the same rejoicing; in setting our view outside of ourselves, we can reallocate much of our mental, physical and spiritual bandwidth to rather go about the business of protecting the rights of those whose rights are truly being violated.
Said simply: In trusting our Champion to champion our cause, we lose much of our life’s baggage, and are enabled to become champions for others in need.
Is someone treading on you today? Rejoice! There is much to lose.
This is SO timely for me, Makala! There was a friend of mine totally treading on me yesterday! Thanks SO MUCH for sharing this, really!
My main spiritual "battle" time is rejoicing. His Names, His strength, His focus on us and the history of our world… that's all I can count on and it's also what I can't automatically determine. So, I praise Him, rejoice in Him, worship Him… for me, nothing else counts.
Glory to God!
He will fight for me. Good thing because I am too weak and old to fight this day! Perhaps tomorrow I will rise up and get out my sword and shield!