Alive: Trajectory
You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
Psalm 10:17-18 NIV
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.
It’s easy to look at the news these days and feel hopeless. The world is on fire, politicians seem more interested in bluster than service, and all the while, the poor, marginalized and oppressed are ignored.
But there is hope. History has an ultimate trajectory, one that is guided by the hand of God. Heaven hears the cries of the oppressed; the heart of the kingdom is liberation.
Empires rise, but they also fall. In the end, power will be proved to be powerless against love, which is the only thing that lasts forever. If you tread all over other people for your own gain, you are setting yourself against the Rock of Ages.
Though it sometimes doesn’t seem like it, we are moving forward. As the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. famously put it: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Father God,
Instill in me the hope that comes with the deep knowledge of you. Help me to better perceive your hand upon history – the deliverance that your Holy Spirit is constantly and forever working in the world. And give me the courage and the wisdom to play my part. Amen.
Author: Gideon Heugh, Tearfund