Musings

by Micah

He has shown you o man what is good and what the Lord requires of you, to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8

This is my life verse. I am discovering the power and truth that are behind this commandment. Our God is the God of Justice and He requires us to be a people of justice, mercy and humility.

We are coming to the end of our four week advocacy trip. I am currently sitting in the student commons area of Boston University. The response has been positive but minimal. As the crowds are dying down, students migrating back to classes and libraries, I am reflecting on how our time on the road, and the movement we have partnered in is all wrapped up in my life’s verse.

The collective “we” can not do justice in a God-honoring way without mercy; we can not be merciful in a righteous way without being humble; we can not be truly humble on our own accord. Where does this leave us? It leaves us needing a relationship with our God. And not just any relationship, we need a vital and dynamic and growing relationship with our God.

Love146 is a component in a much larger “movement.” There is a movement of abolitionist working to end modern-day slavery. “Movements” are human (they are not robotic, and they can be fickle). We are the people of this movement; we are the medium. Movements carry hopes and dreams. But true movements are NOT “spasms of passion.” Movement are for change.

Why the concentration on “movements”? Movements have been the agent of change behind each social upheaval in the past three-hundred years (both for good, and for bad): civil rights; women’s right to vote; gay rights; legalization of marijuana; the 1st abolition of slavery; freedom of religion; etc.

It has been clarified that movements are not created, but rather, they are unearthed. This states well our motivation for this current advocacy trip. There are people (potential mediums of change) who already harbor a heart for the oppressed and the marginalized. These individuals only need to be made aware of the truths so that they might join in the movement for abolition; we need only unearth these hearts.

(This fact has been the reasoning behind our specific approach to advocacy on university campuses; we have made the choice to allow individuals approach us, without the employment of solicitations such as “catch phrases” or “free candy.” The net response may be lower in quantity, but it is surely higher in quality.)

For anyone who has become a part of this movement, it is important to return to the “spark” in order to “keep the flame.”

The central issue, that which we fight for the abolition of, is a dark one - a very dark one. The enemy has sunk its teeth so far into those who are entrapped, true restoration and redemption is only possible through God’s mercy and justice; any other approach is futile.

This darkness is also, what I personally believe to be, the key to abolition. We can treat the symptoms; we can work to strangle the demand; we can use micro financing to greatly diminish the supply (something I am personally very excited to pursue/research); but if we fail to address the spiritual root of the issue, we will fail ultimately.

Mike Berry, a personal friend and pastor from Annapolis, MD has been doing work on the relationship between modern-day slavery, the African slave trade of the 18th and 19th centuries, and spiritually cursed land. In a nutshell: some enslaved Africans retaliated by cursing the slave-owners’ land with voo-doo practices brought over from their homeland, and we have been living with the consequences (social and possibly economical) ever since.

Mr. Berry concludes, and I am inclined to agree, that freedom will come only with reconciliation. He has evidence of this correlation in regards to the African slave-trade; I am excited to see lines drawn to modern-day slavery.