When I became a therapist at a very young age, I was 24 when I graduated with my Masters and went to work right away, I felt fairly inadequate in my ability to help people through life's problems. While in school I had an internship in which I had family, marital and individual clients And also while in school, I worked in two different hospitals, In one hospital I worked on the adolescent inpatient unit and the other was a crisis intake room in an emergency room, which I worked in all by myself; quite scary at times. I also worked in a group home with chronically mentally ill patients who were having a crisis and were in need of respite services. Through these various jobs with various populations of people who needed help I did learn quite a bit. And yet my own life experience basically consisted of growing up in a loving family, going to college and then straight to grad school. I wasn't even married at the time, much less a parent and yet I found myself helping people who were having difficulties with marriage and parenting. So I relied on my schooling, my limited job experiences and two life verses that I adopted as my guideposts to helping people. The first was Micah 6:8. Which is in the title of this blog. I will talk about the other, maybe next time. It was Isaiah 40:3-5.
But for my first I wanted to learn the balancing act of walking between justice and mercy when helping people. Justice to me is standing up for the truth, calling what is right, "right" and what is wrong-"wrong" Not-"if it's right for you then it's okay." I don't believe you can extend hope out to people unless you are able to confront what is not right and change directions. The other aspect is mercy. Mercy keeps justice from becoming judgment. There is a picture in the bible of Jesus beautifully marrying mercy with justice, actually there are more than one example but this one stands out to me. It is the story told in John 8 1-11. The Pharisees (which are the teachers of the law) bring an adulteress women to Jesus and want to stone her according to scripture. And they wanted to know what Jesus had to say about it. They wanted to trap him erring either on the side of being just, or being merciful. If he said, "I agree with the scriptures, stone her" they could say, "ha, you are not the loving, forgiving man you claim to be." But if he said, let her go, They could say "Ha, you disobey the scriptures of God." But Jesus, who by his divine nature had a way of knowing the heart of the matter would not be trapped. In his statement he proved to be both just and merciful. He said "If any one of you is without sin let him be the first to throw the first stone at her" The Pharasees were forced to look at the sinful women as a mirror that reflected their own imperfections, their own adultery, whether it was real, in their heart or symbolic of the seeking other "lovers" apart from God. They one by one left. And Jesus then asked the women "Where are they, has no one condemned you?' she says "no" and he says "Then neither do I condemn you" and then do not stop there. He says "Go now and leave your life of sin" Not "Well, I guess if no one condemns you it's okay, continue on with your life as is, no one is going to stop you now" Because Jesus sees into the heart of all things, he knows that a life of adultery is a life outside of God's design. He knows that a life of adultery is damaging to the woman and to the larger system to which she belongs. Mercy is balanced with justice. Sin is called what it is. Jesus has peered into the woman's heart and saw her pain and reacted with kindness. He also saw her sinful behavior and told her without mincing words to stop.
So as a therapist trying to help people, then later as a mother, wife and friend. I needed to learn that tight little balancing act. It is so easy to swing to one side or the other. Being merciful with out justice or being just without being merciful. It cannot be done alone and that is why the last part of the verse says "walk humbly with your God" Meaning, I take no credit, he is the guide. Acting alone I would swing too far in one direction. To help people to cope with the pain in their life, with the consequences of their choices, with the difficult hand they have been dealt, takes a bit of peering into the heart of the matter and responding with the hope that comes from justice and mercy combined
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