Pockets of the Future

Must justice wait for God?  Absolutely.  Worldwide justice must wait.

Utopia is all about taking power and using it toward justice, especially for the needy.  For this purpose one must have many components:

The moral drive to enact justice without compromise.

The knowledge of how to effectively grant justice to the needy.

The proper sub-leaders who are on the same page as the noble Leader.

And, most importantly, the power of all the world’s resources toward these goals.

The world, currently, is missing all of these components.  Governments, church leaders, the wealthy, the media outlets and the educational facilities do not have this combination of ideal circumstances. 

Even if an entity wishes to enact a certain amount of justice, they typically do so only with a benefit to themselves, and always with a view to tear down someone else’s idea of justice.

If there is a desire to grant justice to those who truly need it, there is never the focused effort to produce the knowledge of the needy and the circumstances that surround them to truly grant them justice.

If a Leader—a president, wealthy person, editor, bishop or institutional president—actually has an idea of how to create justice, those under him do not follow through on her or his ideals, finding loopholes in the system for selfish means.

Even for the few groups that do have a sense of justice for the needy and have the determination necessary to do something about it, they do not have the resources to help all that need the kind of help they offer.

This is why God’s utopia is necessary.  There is no other way for justice, peace, equality, hope to be realized throughout the world. Perhaps this sounds pessimistic.  However, to an eschatologist, this is optimistic, even if it requires prayer and patience.

So worldwide justice must wait.  But community justice does not need to.

Within each church community are the few who truly want to fulfill Jesus’ justice.  Within each local government are the few who truly want to help the poor.  Within each massive media outlet, there are the few that want to break open opportunities for justice.  Within the community of wealthy, there are the few that want to use their accumulated wealth in a way that will really help people.  Within each educational institution there are the few who really think that they have ideas that will change things for everyone’s benefit.

They are not thinking within the boxes of power, because those categories have already proven to be inadequate to create justice.  People are thinking, “If only we had the resources/manpower/community/vision to (insert act of justice here).”  But these people do not feel like they can.  It will never come to pass.  These are the pessimistic.  Those who feel that local justice can’t be done.

It is true, local justice can’t be done through the normal avenues of power.  However, the world is full of just people who do not have world power, but have enough power to create communities of justice.  Not a single solution for everyone.  But a single solution that can be done.

Can a government provide land for a farming community, with greenhouses, on the outskirts of an urban area, with low cost housing for some homeless who would maintain the land and then sell local produce to their city?

Can a faith community provide a listing of the skills of under-worked people— whether mentally ill, retired, homeless, or part time employed— who can be hired for certain projects by the faith community?

Can a particular mega-church or denomination create a local company of painters or landscapers or other kinds of low-skill work, and provide their workers with room, board and a stipend salary?

Can a non-profit group be developed which will pair the developmentally disabled with more functional but lonely people, to live together and assist each other in life?

Can a media outlet provide one column a week telling the daily life and struggles of the needy in their community, so the community could learn that poverty is normal and preventable?

Utopia isn’t possible right now.  That requires the prayer and patience of the saints.  But pockets of utopia are possible right now, in your community.  It requires sacrifice.  It requires the offering up of finances.  It requires love.  It requires becoming poor ourselves.  But these are the people God is looking for to create His final utopia.

The people who are willing to make pockets of utopia now are the people God will use to be the bricks of his final Utopia.