 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|||||
 |
|
EQUITY “Tell all the nations that the Lord is king. The world is firmly established and cannot be shaken. He will judge all peoples fairly.” (Psalm 96: 10) Equity, like justice, is a very difficult concept to make sense of. As we look around our world and see all the inequity that exists, how do we make sense of the fact that God tells us that He will judge all people fairly, when many times life seems anything but fair? During the time I rejected any notion of the existence of God, my defense always centered on equity. I would ask those who insisted on the existence of God, “How can there be a God who is ‘love’ when we see the wicked prosper? When we see innocent children die every day? When good, decent couples cannot have babies, yet there are babies born in crack houses every day? Why would God provide life in a crack house if it is true that only He gives life? What kind of a wicked God would close the womb of a decent woman and open the womb of a crack addict?” How do we accept the fact that decent, hard-working single mothers with great faith pray and pray for God to protect their children from the horrors surrounding their neighborhoods and yet a drive-by shooting takes their innocent child’s life? Why is it that in our workplace we often see those who cheat and lie prosper over those who try to conduct their lives ethically? These are hard questions that I could not answer until I discovered God’s equity. As human beings, we reduce issues of equity to comparisons between people or situations. We often reduce it to who behaves how during a certain period of time. When we simplify God’s equity and judge it according to our system of understanding we simply miss out on God’s true equity. God’s true equity is expressed not in receiving what we “deserve.” It is expressed, rather, in that in His infinite wisdom He provided humanity with His Son, not that we be judged and condemned, but that we would be redeemed and sanctified. God’s equity is exemplified at Calvary as forgiveness and grace, when a condemned humanity is redeemed and made equal to Christ. When a condemned humanity is not judged and sentenced, but loved and set free. In our humanity we understand God’s view of equity when we love those who are the most unlovable and when we join in solidarity with those who are oppressed and abused. We might never make sense of or comprehend God’s equity, but we surely can experience it when we do those things. Lord, allow me to understand your equity as I love those who are difficult to love. Meditation: Have you considered God’s equity? Jorge L. Valdes, Ph.D.
|