Meeting the God of justice

By Jo Mansfield

As I stepped off the plane in Rwanda back in 2003, I had no idea that there I would be meeting the God of justice, or that one day I would be running the organisation I was volunteering through. He has a funny way of planning out our lives.

A 19-year-old comms university student, I was desperate to understand the world better and to see how the majority of the world lived with my own eyes. I made some calls and ended up on a plane to volunteer for a few months with two locally-run organisations in Rwanda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

At this point, it would be helpful for you to know some back story. I was fairly confused about my faith at this time in my life, and my concept of God was a bit off the mark. I saw God as concerned with personal salvation, but not overly bothered about issues of injustice and suffering, and I was struggling with this.

I knew that we were to consider present sufferings to not be worth comparing to future glory – but could God really not be that concerned about the real and raw pain of people around the world? And did I really want to follow a God who was so unmoved by it?

I travelled to Rwanda and the DRC feeling at a crossroads of faith. I knew I was about to encounter suffering to the extent of which I had never seen, and I knew that this might mean that I would have to step away from a silent God. And it’s true - I did encounter heart-breaking suffering – the Rwandan genocide had happened less than 10 years ago, and the civil conflict in the DRC, with its mass atrocities and sexual violence, was ongoing. The suffering of some people in the world is just unimaginable.

But I didn’t expect to encounter a God of justice in the midst of this.

I saw local Christians pouring out their lives for their people in acts of service – driven by their knowledge and love for God, called by God to rise up against the injustice around them, lifting their hands in praise to their loving Father.

I had not realised that God, as well as caring about personal salvation, also cares about justice. That He grieves over injustice. That He defends the fatherless. That His son brought justice to the oppressed. That He tells us to do the same.

It sounds so basic in hindsight and now all these years later seems like a bit of a Captain Obvious. But for me at that time, it was absolutely earth shattering. It was like scales fell from my eyes; all the justice verses in the Bible jumped out at me (how had I not seen them all before?). Evangelism goes hand in hand with social action. God does care about suffering. Deeply. And He moves people to respond. God is a God of justice. The Bible tells me so; the actions of His people tell me so.

The rest is history. I came back to Australia, became a lawyer to work in justice and hung around WorldShare long enough until they let me have a job. I now support those same local organisations I volunteered with all those years ago.

God’s tapestry in our lives is incredible. I’m so grateful that He led me to meet the God of justice and play a part in bringing His justice in the world.

Jo Mansfield

Jo Mansfield lives in Sydney with her husband and two most-of-the-time-gorgeous children. A former lawyer, she is passionate about the role of Christians in pursuing justice. She is the CEO of WorldShare, a Christian aid and development organisation focused on restoring hope for the outcast and forgotten.