www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/pray/daily-reading-31-january
Today’s thought was written by Rev Claire Jones
Something to read
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday.
– Psalm 37:5-6.
Something to think about
The need to be proved right can be a compelling one. As I walked with a friend, having a heated (but friendly!) disagreement about the dates of an old TV show, we pulled out our phones and asked Google and Siri respectively to give us the definitive answer. ‘What did people do before smartphones?’ my friend wondered. ‘We’d have to have finished our walk never knowing who was right.’
When it comes to issues of justice, whether gender inequality or the climate crisis, famine and hunger or access to healthcare, it can be frustrating when other people don’t seem to share our sense of urgency. Perhaps they don’t see that anything much can be done, or they don’t share our passion for the problem in the first place. Others will take a standpoint that seems totally at odds with the cause we are fighting for, and it can leave us dismayed.
There is no ‘smartphone answer’ to these frustrations. Instead, we are to look to God in trust that one day, true justice will be revealed. The good news is not that we will be able to say ‘I told you so!’, but that the injustices we rage against will finally come to an end.
Something to do
Try letting go of the frustrations today by finding opportunity to admit to others when you are wrong, (I’ll start: I was wrong about the date of the TV show!) and resist the urge to gloat when are right.
Something to pray
Trustworthy God, thank you for the promise that you will make all things right in the end. Help me when I feel frustrated at the lack of action or urgency from others, to commit the cause of justice to you, and be sure to play my own part in hastening it along. Amen.