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Her morning cup of coffee was the springboard for Julie Clawson’s “aha moment” about how we can incorporate justice into everyday living. Spencer Burke, host of ThinkFWD, interviews Julie about her book, Everyday Justice published by Intervarsity Press, which looks at how we can tweak our daily lifestyles to promote justice in our local community and the larger world community. “Justice isn’t only for some people—we are all called to live justly,” Julie says. “And we can’t all live out justice in the same way. Some people live with the poor and love and serve there. Other people can shop differently, and support justice by buying products that have been made through a fair wage.”
Living justly is all about being faithful, says Julie. We love God and we love people, and that should include loving the farmers who harvest our coffee or the children who work to make the chocolate we eat. Julie describes how she did an experiment for lent one year—to choose to eat ethically for 40 days. When she completed the 40 days, she thought, “I can do this as a lifestyle. I can make this change permanent.” Julie says it takes making a personal commitment, seeing it as a spiritual discipline. And she suggests starting simply. Find one thing you can do as an individual or as a family, and commit to make that change in your lifestyle.
Spencer and Julie converse about commercialism and how the need for more and more stuff feeds the systems that allow injustice to continue. People are realizing that we need to simplify, and that our greed and desire are hurting people around the world—our brothers and sisters in Christ. A huge benefit of living more justly will be that world views of American Christians will change. Our actions will say, “We care enough about you that we will change our lifestyles.” That, says Julie, would go a long way in spreading the message of Christ and revealing Christians as loving and caring people.
Personal Reflections:
- What is one thing you or your family can do to practice every day justice?
- We desire that all will live justly, but it may look different for each of us. How might I bring my unique approach to every day justice?
Small Group or Staff Questions:
- How can our community model a “both/and” approach, with action and contemplation in balance, rather than swing the pendulum from one to the other?
- How important is it to our group to be both “hearers” and “doers” of the Word?
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Resources:
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November 6th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
[...] Posted on | November 6, 2009 | via theooze.tv [...]
November 6th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Thank you for sharing this conversation, and thank you Julie for holding this work out for us to see. It will make it easier for people to grasp how to daily participate in making a better world, instead of people feeling they are helpless to contribute to such large problems. I think it would be helpful for their to be Everyday Justice cohorts around the country/world. I am co-leading a justice study group this Sunday will present this book to them.