Fredrick Trabajador from the chapter on Surrendering Our Margins had a decision to make. It had been 10 years since his financial collapse and Billson had really helped him out. Now, Fredrick had money laid aside from his wages. He was facing a choice. One of the young men from the boys retreat many years ago was up against it. This young man had spent all he had on a promising investment, and that investment had flopped. He had foolishly made the mistakes that Fred had warned him against from his own painful experiences. He hadn't been living with meekness, and now he was asking for help. If he didn't get help, he would lose everything, just like Fred did. Fred thought to himself, "It is only right that he loses everything, and that he learns the hard way, I had to. It's only fair." He prayed for this boy, and something deep inside himself said, "It is only right that the boy learns the hard way, but, is it righteous? No, it is not, the boy has learned his lesson. I have put you here to help this boy." Fredrick responded, "But it's not right! I worked hard, and I am just now starting over, after 10 years of working for Billson and him owning all my things, it is not right for me to work so hard and for him to get a ticket out of it!" The still small voice came again, "No, it is not right, but, it is righteous." Fred gave in to the voice, and showed the boy mercy. The young man was so grateful, he asked Fred to mentor him. Then Fred told him the story, of how those years ago, he had it all, and how deep and dark his despair was when he lost it. He told him how he was about to let the young man fall into the same despair but the Lord insisted that the boy needs him now. The boy was shaken, he confided to Fred that he was about to jump off the dock at the lake and end it all when some small invisible voice told him to go home and check his mail first, that's when Fred's letter and the check came. Now Fred was shaken, and he had learned a valuable lesson, his rightness was never to be confused with the Lord's righteousness. Fred's rightness had justice in it. The Lord's righteousness had justice and mercy in it.
So, this is a follow up of sorts to the previous chapter about Righteousness. It is also an introduction of sorts to the next chapter about mercy. Fred was right. He knew what it was like, his life had showed him that you could go to financial ruin, and walk through the shame and come out stronger by the grace of God. In all this, he became a better person, a better reflection of Christ, and so, he knew it all to be true, and he was exactly right. Yet, the Lord saw all things, and he knew the younger man had to much shame in his fatherless/Godless past, and was about to decide to leave this world. The Lord knew all things, and so He knew that the righteous thing was to activate mercy, but Fred only knew the right thing. So it was, that Fred was hungry enough for righteousness to talk to God, and the Holy Spirit filled him with righteousness. Fred had to give up on what was right though. To be clear, there could just as easily be a situation where a "Fred" would be inclined to bail the young man out, but the Lord says, "No, he must keep doing it his way, for he has not yet learned". So, I want us to always remember, righteousness is what the Lord sees and believes, and if He believes it, then, it is true. It is not a formula that can be copied and pasted.
Rightness: Worldly righteousness, the just, and fair thing based on available human evidence and reasoning, it comes from God to a degree for He created the world and established moral laws in the order of things and in how they work.
Righteousness: The Lord's way of seeing things, and His truth. It includes rightness, but yet transcends it completely because it is from the nature of One divine, all knowing, and all seeing. This then is the complete picture.
Here is the question ultimately, do you want your rightness or the Lord's righteousness? It might mean you actually know less. It might call you to not lean on your own understanding of things, It might call to live moment by moment, asking God what to do when up against "it", instead of "having the answers for "it" before it happens." So, in a way, it could cause you to give up some or maybe all of "your answers for all the "its" in your life." If you want the Lord's righteousness, pray with me: Lord, today I thank you for the rightness you have shown me, and for establishing moral laws that make the world a tolerable and beautiful place, but today, I surrender all that rightness, and all my notions and knowledge of things, and in that void, I am hungry, and thirsty for your righteousness. I thank you for what you are about to do, and in all the complex problems and all my "its" in this world, I choose today to wait on your righteousness.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
This has been Chapter 9 of Surrender!? To Who?
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