Recently, a documentary film titled Call + Response was released that addresses the injustice of the slave trade at work in the U.S. and around the world today. I have plugged the film on my blog as well as helped to form an official Austin response to the film (and the issue) called What's Your Response?
Yesterday, I was wearing my What's Your Response? t-shirt and Harry asked me what it meant. Without getting into all the sordid details of slavery (Harry is 4) I explained that there were adults and kids in the world that people locked up and hurt and weren't nice to. I said that we should be praying for them and doing whatever we could to help them. That is our response.
Harry blew me away when he said, "My response is I can be nice to kids and to my friends and share toys with them and not hit them."
Too often, we look at the injustice in the world and, overcome by the magnitude of it, do nothing. While I believe we can and should effect change on a massive and global scale, it is essential to remember that justice begins by sharing what we have and by not hurting other people. This is something we can all do. Even my 4 year old son.
1 comment:
i love hearing about Harry's questions and thoughts through your telling. beautiful stuff. if you wrote a book in that vein, i would be a big fan.
Greg has been thinking quite a bit about justice and how we are called more to the immediate, relational, local context than as much to the global one. he's posted a few of his thoughts at the Emergent Village blog. good stuff. hope all is well. peace
Post a Comment