Justice, faithful love, and humility

Last month I had the pleasure to join some amazing students from Resurrection, including my oldest daughter, on a mission trip to Poland. To say these students impressed me would be an understatement. There are so many great stories I could share, and I hope to do so in the coming months. It’s strange how a place can bring you back full circle. Poland did that for me in a funny way. Long time readers of the GPS might remember that I used to write monthly for our Insights blog for about 10 years when I decided it was time to take a break–for you and me! Stepping back into this ministry that I love I was reminded that the first year I started writing I wrote about a Polish proverb that had resonated with me. You may have heard of it: “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” It essentially means that you are not responsible for or involved in a particular situation or problem and therefore will not take action to address it. As a mom with four of my own monkeys (kids) it’s easy to feel like I have enough to handle with my own circus and my own monkeys that I don’t need to borrow extra from other people or situations. I’m sure many of us feel this way with all the busyness of our everyday lives. I’ve even seen it on t-shirts!

Where am I going with this? Back to Poland. While walking through a small town in Poland someone in our group mentioned that old proverb. We all laughed a little thinking about monkeys running amok. It seemed harmless enough, especially in the light of all we have on our plates at home. But about 30 minutes later I realized I would never hear that proverb in the same light again. We were on a walking tour of that small town and had stopped in a park that was a monument to the Jews who had lived in that town and perished during the Holocaust. I read the plaques that told of how almost fifty percent of the population was systematically removed from the town and sent to concentration camps, mostly Auschwitz, and the hard truth of “not my circus, not my monkeys” sank in. How could this happen? Half of the population gone within a few weeks? I realized that most in that town had adopted a similar attitude as they watched their neighbors, co-workers and even friends be carted off. Not my business, not my responsibility.

As I read through the Micah passage today, I was reminded that we are called to stand for something. Justice. Faithful Love. Humility. Micah could have addressed the issue of sin with an even longer, more outrageous list of what we should be against. But he chose to share three simple expectations of what we are to stand for. I’d like to think that if I’d lived in that small town I would have been brave enough to stand for justice, to love faithfully and to be humble. The truth is I don’t know for sure, and I pray to never have to test it.

We aren’t living in a holocaust, but the cultural divide in our country is becoming increasingly polarized. We all feel it. We’re flooded with messages of what we should be against, who we should hate and fear. Doing justice, loving faithfully and being humble shouldn’t be a counter cultural message, but it is. And I can’t help but wonder, what if it really is our circus and they really are our monkeys? Micah tells us it is, and they are. May we be people known for what we stand for: Justice, faithful love, and humility. That would surely shake up the circus.