Things Unseen

In his stirring, challenging Good News About Injustice, Updated 10th Anniversary Edition: A Witness of Courage in a Hurting World , Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission gives a fresh spin to living by faith instead of sight: “Christians . . . are meant to be particularly gifted in sustaining a commitment to what is true and important though unseen.  The very essence of faith, we are told, is ‘the conviction of things unseen’ . . . Therefore, we who are only rarely exposed first- or secondhand to the truth about those who suffering injustice in our world are taught in Scripture to ‘remember’ what we know, even after it leaves our sight or experience.”  He cites the exhortations in Hebrews 13:3, Galatians 2:10 and Colossians 4:18 to remember prisoners, and those who are suffering: “Precisely because it is not our first and natural inclination, we are called to a conscious effort of reserving a space in our thought life for those who suffer abuse and oppression in our world . . . . Surely it is God’s job to remember all the victims of injustice in our world, but might there not be one child, one prisoner, one widow, one refugee that I can remember?”