Psalm 37 offers some verses to us that can be extremely helpful as we seek to do God's will and find our place as believers in this world. Verse 23 reminds us:
23The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.
Now, to verse 27, which continues to paint a picture of a person driven by love for God and compassion for other people, desiring to communicate His truth and to live by the virtues of justice and mercy.27Depart from evil, and do good; And dwell forevermore.28For the Lord loves justice, And does not forsake His saints; They are preserved forever, But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.29The righteous shall inherit the land, And dwell in it forever.30The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, And his tongue talks of justice.31The law of his God is in his heart; None of his steps shall slide.
In this culture today, I believe that our willingness to do that right thing and to actually execute those types of actions can be powerful for the cause of Christ. If we desire to see justice, to see things made right, to inject Biblical wisdom into situations where wrong has been done, that can speak powerfully to others and give us the opportunity to call attention to the presence of the Lord within us. We can strive to be known as people of justice and mercy, generosity, and civility - living in a counter-cultural manner so that God might be glorified.
The words of Micah 6, verse 8 gives us a template for living our lives with justice, motivated by mercy - and can shape our attitude to want to make things right:
8He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?
Recently, an apparently visually impaired, perhaps even blind, person visited a Dairy Queen restaurant in Minnesota - the customer dropped a $20 bill on the ground and another customer picked it up and put it in her purse. In stepped 19-year-old DQ manager Joey Prusak, who asked the woman to give the man his money back. She refused, so Joey asked her to leave the restaurant, refusing to serve someone as disrespectful as she. The woman was irate and stormed out, uttering a few choice words along the way - Joey was apparently unflappable and remained calm. Then, he took out a $20 bill from his own pocket and gave it to the man who had been wronged.
CBN News reports that a customer who witnessed the incident emailed Dairy Queen, and the email was sent to store owner Dave Pettit, who posted it at the store.
Then a fellow employee shared a picture of the letter via Facebook and it immediately went viral.
Now, Prusak is getting worldwide attention. He's even been personally called by major Dairy Queen shareholder Warren Buffet.
Prusak said that Buffet said, "...I just wanted to call and say thank you for all that you did. He goes, 'it means an awful lot to me.'"
Since the posting, the store's business has doubled and $20 bills keep showing up in his mailbox from people inspired by his actions.
Prusak said he'll give the money to charity.
What a great story! And it underscores several Biblical principles. One is justice. What Joey could have done is just ignored the incident, not stir up anything, relegating it to a matter between 2 customers in a restaurant. That is not the path he chose - he wanted to make things right, and he took 2 steps to do it: he refused to serve the customer, asking her to leave, and he gave his own money to the blind man. Throughout the Scriptures, we read about a God who wants to make things right: when humanity fell in the garden by their wrong choices, and while each of us inherited that broken relationship with God, He made the way for us to be right with Him - while justice might on one hand mandate that we be punished for our sins, mercy motivated Him to send His Son to make things right.
A sense of justice can drive us to have right relationships, predicated on the principles of Christ. If we have offended someone or a relationship has been strained, we can be motivated to ask for forgiveness or to grant it, where we have been wronged. We serve a God of healing, who desires to make things right.
Another principles is that of generosity. You could say that asking the customer to leave was enough, that it showed the woman that disrespect would not be tolerated in that particular space. But, Joey gave of himself - for a 19-year-old restaurant manager, that's a huge step and a huge sacrifice. For us as Christians, it reminds us that we are, as guest Chris Sicks outlined on the Tuesday edition of The Meeting House, to be people of the word, but also people of deed - we are to express the love of Christ through the acts of generosity in which we engage. I don't know what motivated Joey to do what he did, but I know that Christ's compassion can drive us to be generous. And, Joey's not even keeping the plethora of $20 bills that he's receiving - another unselfish stance.
I think also we need to be reminded of civility, a virtue to which our culture seems to respond positively - just look at the attention this one simple incident has received. As believers in Christ, we should be the most civil people on earth, because it's the right thing to do, the proper stance to display. Joey schooled the woman who stole the $20 on showing respect to others, and he apparently did so in a calm and winsome manner. Being civil, striving for politeness and demonstrating respect for others are qualities that win the day.
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