Waiting on Justice

I was driving with my cruise control set reasonably just above the speed limit on the freeway yesterday evening.  Using cruise control is a relatively new habit of mine, born out of the Great Eclipse 2017 Speed Trap incident.  That, of course, is another story...

On this evening I found myself cruising along in the left lane, passing a little string of trucks, planning to get ahead of them and then get back into the right lane.  As has happened to us all any number of times I soon found that I had another vehicle riding my bumper.  I tapped the cruise control to go a little bit faster.  The car continued to ride me way too close, swaying back and forth in my mirror, impatiently trying to prod me to speed up.

Moments later I got past the string of trucks and went ahead and got into the right lane.  A young girl with California plates ripped past me and continued up the freeway.  Almost immediately I notice an Oregon State Police officer pulled over on the side of the freeway; he, of course, pulled out and started off into traffic ahead of me.  He didn't turn his lights on or race super fast.  I found myself chuckling and hoping he caught up with her, knowing that he had to have spotted what she did to me, but wondering as he was not really hurrying.

A couple miles up the road and I am pleased to see blue and red lights ahead.  As I get closer I see that he has indeed pulled over the girl who was riding me.  Not going to lie, I feel a bit guilty being pleased over this because my own Great Eclipse 2017 Speed Trap incident is still pretty fresh, but I also know that this girl was definitely being more reckless than I.  There was certainly a moment of pleased smugness as I cruised by.

Have you ever had to sit back and watch someone get away with something?

Have you been wronged?  Lied to, or lied about?  Cheated on?  Betrayed?

Does your skin crawl, your soul cry out, at injustices happening in the world around you?  Are you flabbergasted by crooked, arrogant, con-people who seemingly just always get away with "it"?

I am not one to really believe in the full concept of "karma".  I am more likely to say that there are always consequences to our choices and that life offers a variety of experiences, and so eventually we are likely to be at the receiving end of what we may have dished out.  Sometimes, yes, what comes around goes around.

I also know with all of my heart that God is a god of JUSTICE.

Psalm 33:5 says, "The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love."  Isaiah 61:8a says, "For I, the Lord, love justice..."  And Isaiah 30:18 says, "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.  For the Lord is a God of justice.  Blessed are all who wait for Him!"

There are many other Scriptures that point to God's justice.  There are also plenty that point to God expecting us to also be people who yearn for and live justly.  The most well known of these, of course, is Micah 6:8:

When you are wronged, when you experience or witness injustice, when you watch thieves, liars, cons, seemingly get away with their behavior...

People may be fooled, people may remain silent, but God is a God of justice and He will see to it that what has been sown will be reeped.  That is not saying that everything that happens is God's judgement, or that people are getting what they deserve when good or bad things happen to them!  That's a different conversation.

Just know, though, that God is not blind.  It may be a long time, it may not even be recognizable, but eventually God will bring things full circle, just like the wobbly speeding girl on the freeway.

So hold your head high, let go, and let God.  Be still.  Know that He is God.  And know that He holds it all in His hands, which is a lot better than it being in mine.