Thirsting for Justice

The title of my blog has always been a reminder to me that there is a type of thirst that I am to continue to have. Matthew 5:6 says, “God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” I can think of times when my physical body was depleted of water and my thirst was strong. I remember how good water tasted when I was finally able to quench this thirst. Until I quenched it, my mind could think of little else. “Thirst for justice” is about having that same kind of desire for a world of justice. It is a desire to see all wrongs made right. It is easy when I feel that I have been treated unjustly; then, my thirst for justice is immediately strong. What God desires for me is that I learn to have a powerful thirst for justice for others as well. It starts with a thirst for the kind of justice God desires. It starts with a thirst for God.

Psalm 42 speaks of thirsting for God like a deer thirsts for streams of water. Like that deer, we may sometimes despair of ever finding water for our thirst. We may think back on happier times when God was very present, quenching our thirst for justice and our thirst for God’s presence in our lives. We have all known times when both God and God’s justice seemed far away. Psalm 42 reminds us that we can once again put our hope in God for He is the one who will quench our thirst - our thirst for God - and our thirst for justice.

Psalm 42 (NLT)

As the deer longs for streams of water,
    so I long for you, O God.
² I thirst for God, the living God.
    When can I go and stand before him?
³ Day and night I have only tears for food,
    while my enemies continually taunt me, saying,
    “Where is this God of yours?”

⁴ My heart is breaking
    as I remember how it used to be:
I walked among the crowds of worshipers,
    leading a great procession to the house of God,
singing for joy and giving thanks
    amid the sound of a great celebration!

⁵ Why am I discouraged?
    Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
    I will praise him again—
    my Savior and ⁶ my God!

Now I am deeply discouraged,
    but I will remember you—
even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan,
    from the land of Mount Mizar.
⁷ I hear the tumult of the raging seas
    as your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
⁸ But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,
    and through each night I sing his songs,
    praying to God who gives me life.

⁹ “O God my rock,” I cry,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I wander around in grief,
    oppressed by my enemies?”
¹⁰ Their taunts break my bones.
    They scoff, “Where is this God of yours?”

¹¹ Why am I discouraged?
    Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
    I will praise him again—
    my Savior and my God!

Thirsty

Eveyone has a spiritual thirst. We may try to ignore the thirst but deep down inside we know we are thirsty. We thirst for something more. Chris Rice captures the concept of spiritual thirst in his song Thirsty.

I’m so thirsty, I can feel it
Burning through the furthest corners of my soul
Deep desire, can’t describe this
Nameless urge that drives me somewhere
Though I don’t know where to go

Seems I’ve heard about a River from someone who’s been
And they tell me once you reach it, oh, you’ll never thirst again
So I have to find the River, somehow my life depends on the River
Holy River, I’m so thirsty

Other waters I’ve been drinkin’
But they always leave me empty like before
Satisfaction, all I’m askin’
Could I really feel this thirsty if there weren’t something more?

And I’ve heard about a River from someone who’s been
And they tell me once you reach it, oh, you’ll never thirst again
So I have to find the River, somehow my life depends on the River
Holy River, I’m so thirsty

I’m on the shore now of the wildest River
And I kneel and beg for mercy from the sky
But no one answers, I’ve gotta take my chances
‘Cause something deep inside me’s cryin’
"This is why you are alive!"

So I plunge into the River with all that I am
Praying this will be the River where I’ll never thirst again
I’m abandoned to the River
And now my life depends on the River
Holy River, I’m so thirsty

Self-doubt

A healthy understanding of who we are and how others see us is a blessing. Consider these two quotes:

"Self-doobt isna really so bad a thing, laddie," said Duncan with a chuckle. "'Tis what the Creator gives t' keep us humble. So long as it doesna cripple ye an' make ye so ye canna do a thing, a little self-doobt can du ye guid. 'Tis the seasoning o' a gracious soul to keep it from thinkin' highly o' itself."
". . . The Lord's tellin' a different tale w' each o' us. But the curse o' the human lot is either thinkin' too much or too little o'oorsel's. There's self-doobt and there's pride-an' everyone's got one or the other. Likely enough, everyone's got a heap o' both! But 'tis usually one or the other that's the inner cross o' character we each must bear till Lord's work in us is dune. Speakin' fer myself, I'd rather walk wi' the heavier dose o' the doobt than the pride. 'Tis perhaps a wee harder t' bear up under. But the one grows the fruit of Galatians Five in us if we let him have his way, but the other's a sure ruin o' character if we don't. . . "
"Dinna ye fret, laddie," said Duncan at length. "Ye're a man. An' ye're a man that's walkin' down the right road wi' yer face held t' the light. Ye're just a mite more openhearted than most aboot the struggles ye got inside. But all men'se got 'em. All the men in yer Parliament, an' yer prime minister-they're all fightin' the same battles. 'Tis jist that most never let anither see 'em. An' there's some that winna look them square in the eye themsel's. Ye're more a man, Andrew my lad, fer facin' yer doobts an' trying t' win through them, not less."
– Michael Phillips in Caledonia: Legend of the Celtic Stone, Bethany House Publishers, 1999, p. 396.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!
- Robert Burns in “To A Louse.”