Justice For ALL
Pastor Tim is a good friend of mine. While attending a small group gathering he was leading he taught me something I will not soon forget. He told us that when talking to someone, listening to them, and empathizing with them, you should never tell them “I understand.” I was taken aback for a minute thinking to myself, “I tell people I understand all the time!” But as he continued I realized how right he was. You should never tell anyone that you “understand” what they are going through or the hardships they are facing because the fact is that you DON’T understand. Now please don’t get me wrong, you might have faced similar hardships, you might be able to empathize with them, and your heart might be breaking along with theirs but the fact remains, you cannot possibly fully understand.
I love my wife VERY much. If God made soul mates, she is mine without a doubt. We have done every aspect of life together for the past 13 years. Together we went to undergrad, chiropractic school, and a year of training post school. We’ve worked as employees together and we’ve worked as business owners together. We eat the same food, workout together, adjust each other. She is my best friend and partner in life! BUT, while we have lived the same life for so long, God help me, I do not understand that woman! We are VERY different people. Her joys are not always my joys and her hurts are not always my hurts! We are two individuals with two very different experiences in life alongside each other.
On paper my brother and I are the same person. He’s a bald chiropractor married to a chiropractor owning and operating a health center, loving God, family, and country. The only difference is I’m slightly better looking and smarter! And he’d probably say the same thing about himself, which is just another example. But again, I often do not understand him! We are two individuals, cut from the same cloth experiencing life in similar but very different ways.
I love the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t think we say it or think about it enough. It is a powerful declaration of who we are and what we stand for. I strongly believe that if we all actually made that pledge and lived by it we could once again be the greatest country in history, especially if we all came to live “Under God.” But recently the line “…and justice for all” really hit a chord with me. I really had to question, what does justice for all mean and how do we live in alignment with that pledge in our country? Lets take a look!
Justice: 1) fairness. 2) moral rightness. 3) a system of law in which every person receives their due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal.
Justice is one of Dr. Lauren’s highest values. To her all things should be fair. They should be equal. If you work hard you should be rewarded. If you don’t you should expect nothing. All people should have the same opportunities and no one should be discriminated against for ANY reason. She will always stand up against INJUSTICE. She has a very hard time standing up for herself but if she sees someone or some group acting unfairly or intentionally hurting, abusing, or bullying a weaker more vulnerable person or group she comes alive with a passion that drives her to defend and protect beyond the limits of her ability and rightfully so. Justice is a principle of God. He is just. Pastor Tony Evens explains it this way: “[Justice] is the equitable and impartial application of the rule of God’s moral law in society. There is no clear and right definition of justice that excludes God. So to grasp justice, we must go to God’s Word. The Bible condemns injustice because God is just. As the ultimate lawgiver, He strongly opposes injustice.” God always does what is right and fair. We then as a society should also strive for what is right and fair.
For ALL: 1) every, everything, everyone. 2) exhaustively including every portion, person, or part. 3) leaving out none.
There are a lot of people in the United States. 334,183,570 as of Feb 21, 2022 to be exact give or take a few. The pledge states that there is to be justice for all leaving out none. Everyone. Exhaustively including each of us. No less than 334,183,570. We are a nation made up of INDIVIDUALS all living under God with our own life experiences. We have each had different challenges, hardships, and difficulties that cannot be truly understood. Similarly our happiness and motivation in life comes from different sources. But the fact is that God loved each and every individual so much that He would send His Son to die for ALL.
In this light “Justice for all” then becomes a clear statement that every INDIVIDUAL should be treated equally and with fairness with no discrimination and that injustice should be opposed at all costs as it flies in the face of our just God.
“We are in this together”, then is a gross over generalization. We are not in this together. We all have different struggles and fears that are our own. We all have different life experiences. We all have different views. Even in our own marriages and families we are individuals with differing emotions and desires. When “I” becomes “we”, we lose the capacity to attain “justice for all”. Slowly the whole becomes more important than the parts. The foot is no loner essential to the body and it is forgotten. The ear becomes an annoyance and is removed. The hand pulls the body in a different direction so it is cut off. The individual is treated unjustly “for the greater good.”
Nowhere is individualism more important than in health. The human body is the most complex and beautiful miracle God ever contrived. Humans with all of their science and research have hardly scratched the surface as to how God designed us. There are an infinite number of variables that make a human live and thrive. We humans try to simplify those variables so we can attempt to control them but the fact is that everything that has ever happened to you, everything you have ever eaten, every breath you have ever breathed has landed you here and now with the health or lack of it that you have. The task then becomes impossible to know exactly what an INDIVIDUAL needs to attain health. Thankfully God didn’t just make us and leave us. He left His intelligence inside of us that has been running and coordinating your life and health from conception and will be there until your last day! So the task is not ours to determine the needs of the individual, only to live in alignment with how God created man, giving your body the tools it needs to do its job.
If we cannot possibly comprehend the needs of one individual, it is foolish to think that we can utilize a “one size fits all approach” to the health of our nation. My needs are different than yours because my life has been different that yours.
The founder of Chiropractic, Dr. D.D. Palmer set out to answer the question: if there are two twins sitting at the same table, eating the same food, breathing the same air and germs, why then does one get sick and the other stays well? Because they are individuals with individual life experiences and individual needs.
Justice for all is lost when we foolishly attempt to live for the greater good. Parts are cut off, individuals and treated unjustly. I stand for individual health freedom. You should too!
In Health and Faith,
Dr. Marc
