Hunter's Heart

"I'm not going to school," my 6-year-old grandson insisted last Friday. Our daughter Joy was confused because Hunter loves school.

"Hunter, get on the bus."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I am taking the money I was saving for vacation to God's Warehouse [a local thrift store] and buying clothes and toys for the kids that don't have them."

A tornado had hit a section of their northeast Tennessee county and wiped out a community of houses. Hunter insisted that the children who had been affected couldn't wait another day for clothes while he went to school.

Hunter won. Joy loaded Hunter, his vacation change jar and a 4-year-old friend in the pickup and off they went to God's Warehouse. When Hunter asked the person in charge how much he could buy for the $38 in his jar, they told him he could fill the back of his momma's truck.

Because they knew some of the children whose homes had been destroyed, Joy had gotten a list of clothing sizes needed. She set up baskets on the floor labeled by size, and the boys carefully went through the clothing, selecting two outfits for each child. Toys and other items were added to the piles.

Hunter also tried to buy the eight bags of donations an elderly man was dropping off. "You don't want these clothes, Son, they're for old people," the man said.

"Well, there were old people whose homes were destroyed. Please, can I buy them?" The man apologized to the store clerk and placed the bags in Joy's truck instead.

When the truck was full, Joy and the kids took the donations over to those affected. The devastation hit them hard, and Joy worried about its effect on the boys. But there was satisfaction, too, in delivering the things they had picked out and that Hunter had personally paid for.

I'm proud of my grandson. He's been saving that money for months in anticipation of a trip to the beach this summer. And yet he was willing to give it up for what he saw as a greater need.

Yesterday, I got irritated about a very small kindness someone asked me to do. It cost me almost nothing, but my selfish nature protested. I need God to soften my heart like he has Hunter's to the needs of those around me and to help me put those needs before my wants.

What needs do you see today? Maybe you're called, like Hunter, to help those dealing with the tornado aftermath. Maybe it's someone at church that needs a hand. Maybe it's a family member who simply needs us to listen. Whatever it is, act quickly as Hunter did. Don't delay like I did. Allow God to bless others through you.

Charity or Justice or Both?

I love the intentional charitable choices Les and I make at Christmas. We give coats to a clothing closet so someone will have a warmer Christmas. We buy gifts for someone we know in need. We put together shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. And because of my parents' Salvation Army background, I have trouble passing a kettle without dropping a little something inside. This year we added the alternative gifts for the family.

Giving to others in need reminds me of the real reason behind Christmas: Jesus came because we needed him. He gives to us and so, in his honor, we give to others.

Two articles in the latest PRISM magazine—the magazine published by Evangelicals for Social Action—reminded me, though, that giving isn't the only reason Jesus came. An arresting phrase turned up in the first article and then was the title (and subject) of the second: Charity is not justice.

Justice involves using the power you have to provide fair treatment for others, especially the most vulnerable. When Jesus announced his own mission in the synagogue, he used a passage from Isaiah that says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me 

to proclaim good news to the poor. 

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

and recovery of sight for the blind, 

to set the oppressed free, 

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

There are both acts of charity (giving sight to the blind) and of justice (freedom for the prisoners, setting the oppressed free) spoken of in those verses. When God, through Micah told the people what true religion was he said it was "to act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." To truly follow God, I cannot just "do charity." I must also "act justly."

I always say that I want the spirit of Christmas to be evident in my life all year long, and so I try to ensure that I continue to do acts of charity. But how committed am I to acting justly? And to doing my part to require those holding the reins of power—governments or corporations—to act justly?

That's harder, and to be honest, it doesn't usually supply the warm, fuzzy feeling that my charitable giving does. It often means slogging along for the long haul. It might mean writing e-mails or letters, making phone calls, choosing inconvenient shopping options, recruiting others to do the same. It can take years of work (think about the calls to end apartheid). I may never meet the "recipient" of my act of justice; they may never even know that anyone acted on their behalf. But it is still the will of God for me.

So I'm thinking. How will I "act justly" this year? What will I commit to? I can sign petitions through change.org or send an e-mail through bread.org when an important vote is on the table. Will I take the second step to make a phone call to a politician to make my voice heard? Will I use the power I do have—my money—and write a corporation and then choose not to buy their product or shop at their store when I hear of unjust practices, not just for a week or two until it gets inconvenient, but until they change? Will I regularly pray for justice to become the norm and listen to God's voice telling me where I need to work to implement it?

I hope I will consciously choose to support justice, to remember that charity is not justice, and that God desires both. How will you join me in the quest for justice in 2011?