Topic: coping
This week I was encouraged to look again at the 18th chapter of Luke. It's the story of the persistent widow who continued to ask until the judge got tired of her being a pain and decided to grant her request.
How I wish that some people I know were as easily worn down as this judge!
Now, the difference in this judge and a lot of people I know is that he admitted that he didn't care about God or people either one--at least, he admitted that to himself.
It's the folks who are like the Pharisees, always running everyone else down, while claiming to love God and be so self-sacrificing and long-suffering that make me want to puke!
The passage is trying to teach us that earthly-minded judges cannot be expected to easily promote justice. Yet God does.
Many people miss the point of this story, stopping at the idea that justice gives a person what he or she is seeking. The deeper meaning is one that I've seldom heard taught, but here's what I believe.
We do not have to wait for justice. We do not have to get it from ANYONE. The most important kind of justice comes from having a pure heart. For that's what brings peace. And when you have peace, whatever others do or do not do really doesn't count for much. Unless we allow it to.
