Chapters 20-21 recount the legal battle that followed Dr. Perkins’ arrest and beating. The discriminatory attitude of the Mississippi court system is shockingly obvious here, but in the end Perkins is able to count the experience as a victory, if only a partial one.
Perkins’ commentary on our understanding of justice and the need to stand for what’s really right caught my attention:
“Whether we admit it or not, our reading of biblical ethics is colored by our perception of the world around us. If we think that there are only a few ‘bad guys’ such as burglars and murderers, and that all the given political, legal and economic structures around us are basically okay, then we are bound to read our Bibles in a certain way. … If sin can exist at every level of government, an in every human institution, then also the call to biblical justice in every corner of society must be sounded by those who claim a God of Justice as their Lord” (195).
The challenge to live as a counter-cultural example, humbly confronting injustice wherever it is found, is an important and difficult one. It’s a role that calls us to be self-aware and willing to address our own issues, as well as unafraid to question tradition, groupthink and business as usual.
In the coming year of leadership there may be points at which you feel like you’ve made one step forward only to be pushed back or confronted by another challenge. It’ll be important for us to identify ways in which success is measurable. Sometimes success can be measured numerically: the number of volunteers at your project or the volume of fundraising for SPRINT trips. At other times, success is evident in impact on individuals or even in incremental changes, as John Perkins saw in his justice-failed trial outcome. What do you think?
How will you judge success or failure in the coming year?
As I plan ahead for my UI team at Empowering Youth and Families Outreach, which tutors kids at a church in Rainier Valley, I can't help but hope to see a successful outcome in terms of how many volunteers I can get to come - of course I want to have the van as close to full as possible each week. But recently I've come to the realization that it's entirely possible that I won't always have a surplus of volunteers. And that's okay. Having a large number of volunteers won't mean anything if they are uncommitted and undedicated. What I desire to see this year is a group of volunteers, how ever many there may be, who are eager each week to come and tutor, building a meaningful friendship with whatever child they end up tutoring on a (hopefully) consistent basis. I want the relationships built between children and tutors to be the reason that the volunteers decide to return each week, in the hopes of once again seeing God working through them as they work with a child who is struggling with school, even if for just one hour a week.
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