Day Twenty - What Can Others Teach Us About Justice?

As we near the end of the year and as we approach Advent it is a good time to take stock, and this year we have a great deal to take stock of!

Recently I have had more time to take stock myself. I was reading Psalm 82 - A plea for justice, and at verse 3 it says “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute”, and goes on to talk about those in need and protecting them from those who might abuse them. That got me thinking about past experiences, opportunities I have had in life, and especially my career choices. A common thread of a need to see and promote equality and justice has run throughout, from my work with young families, to teaching young offenders through to representing and championing the voluntary (third) sector.

Despite my knowledge and experience in the different areas of my work I found that this was often not enough to find a solution to a problem, and I would often turn to God in prayer to help me find a way forward.

One of these times was when I was teaching young offenders at a further education college, supporting the young men that came to my class to re-engage with education. At this time, I met Jack (not his real name), a young man who had been discharged from a young offender’s institution, where he had been sent for a series of petty thefts. Justice for the crime he had committed you might think. But just a few months later I questioned that statement!

When Jack joined my class, I noted his outward appearance and demeanour. He also couldn’t read or write despite being 19 years old. When he arrived each morning, his clothes were dirty, and his appearance was unkempt. For the first few weeks I struggled to engage him in the lessons in any meaningful way and I felt quite frustrated that he was ‘wasting an opportunity to turn his life round. But who was I to judge!

After one frustrating day unsuccessfully trying to engage him in learning I was ready to give up. I went home that evening disillusioned and frustrated and I prayed to God for guidance and randomly opened my bible and began to read. It was Isaiah 1, and at verse 17 I read “Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow”.

I went to bed that night with those words on my mind and the next morning as I prepared the classroom for the day Jack arrived early, and I took the opportunity to talk to him about how he felt things were going for him. I was intending to tell him that maybe the course wasn’t for him. But I sat shocked as he began to tell me about his life. His mother, who had been HIV positive had brought him up alone but had died when he was 13 years old, and since then he had lived on the streets, stealing food to get by and he often went hungry. That morning we made a pact, that he would come early each morning and shower in the sports hall, and I would make him tea and toast for breakfast before class started and provide a packed lunch for later. I begged clothes from family and friends, and he started to take pride in his appearance. But the biggest change was his motivation to learn to read and write, and from that day he didn’t look back, beginning to link into services to help him to make changes to his life.

Over the years I have often thought about Jack and what he taught me about fairness, equality and justice. Jack had known so much hardship in his life and yet he was willing to forgive and make the most of what he had got. A valuable lesson for us all. As we move towards Advent let us remember those in our world who don’t know equality and justice.

Loving Father,

We pray for those in our society who don’t have equality and justice, those who don’t have a fair share of the world’s resources, those who are struggling to navigate their way through life with little to help them do so - give them a voice.

Help me to be aware of my role in making changes and help me to be a conduit of change. Always your loving servant. Amen.

Kathy Shaw