Justice

The blog Under The Overpass has an outstanding article on justice.

Here is a taste of it.

"May I have a tall glass of justice?"
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good and what is required of you: do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

(Kind Reader, I normally avoid posting about political things on this blog. That is not because I do not have some passionately held political convictions---I most assuredly do. I think and pray deeply about such things, but that does not guarantee that I am necessarily correct. Like my adventures in theology, I try to avoid getting my politics from bumper stickers. Who knows? Maybe God will one day say, “Why did you not read all of those bumper stickers and clever church signs that I was sending you on your daily commute?” I will make this post my only political one of the election season. I do feel strongly that some of this touches on life under the overpasses and profoundly impacts the lives of the people I serve there. If you are allergic to things that are slightly political, then I suggest you ignore this and await my next post where I return to the regularly scheduled programming.)

I can always tell whenever I have crossed over an invisible cultural boundary by my drink order at restaurants. Here, if I ask for tea with a meal, I have to specify that I want it unsweetened. Of course, I cannot imagine asking for such a thing. It is assumed that most people will want it so sweet that it leaves a sugary residue at the bottom of the glass. The only question that I am usually asked when I request tea is, “Do you want lemon with that, Sweetie?” Of course the “Sweetie” part of that question does indicate that I want sweet tea. That is a given. Here, when a meal server calls me “Sweetie”, “Hon”, “Sugar” or “Darling”, my wife does not even flinch. We all know that is simply someone angling for a better tip. It also means that the establishment probably has some very sweet tea and some amazing banana pudding on the menu.

I walked into a fast food place in another region of the country after a long day of driving. I asked for tea with my combo meal. The young lady behind the counter looked at me as if I had just requested a side order of golf balls with my meal.

You can read the entire article here.