But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream Amos 5: 24
Recently I was talking with a heating engineer who runs a company. He was telling me that it is not unusual for engineers to stick a screwdriver in the works so to speak. Therefore, leaving the householder with a costly repair or a new boiler system. The idea being that you call him for the job when you later notice the leak.
This sort of practice is all over. A car servicing company not far from where I live discovered a considerable number of air filters and oil filters thrown over the wall. They were brand new. The mechanics were cutting corners to save time.
And please, don’t get me started on fraudulent review sites that are well…” creative” with the stats.
I find it disturbing. I wonder, I mean, I really wonder how they can sleep at night. I am not using this hackneyed phrase for no good reason. I am a Christian, and like most people, I like to operate in a kind, honest and loyal society.
However, I take comfort in a universal sense of justice. A subjective justice: an accounting for how we carry out our life.
As a child I read many books: Pinocchio, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Peter Rabbit, and Tom Thumb to mention a few. I read many books now. One thing every book I have read has in common is that they all have happy endings. Ever wondered about that? We like happy endings. It’s human to see justice prevail.
I was in Manila Airport last month waiting in a long, long queue to get through security. Well guess what? Someone tried to skip the queue. Many in the queue reacted and the perpetrator was sent packing (forgive the pun). We don’t like this kind of cheating; it triggers our ethical alarm. Our sense of fairness.
You know this, we are led to believe we are in an aimless universe with no meaning or purpose. Mr Richard Dawkins wrote the following:
“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.”
Maybe that is the case with many religions, but me, I find the answers in scripture very satisfying. They help me understand the world.
Many years ago, when I was younger, I was searching and searching and searching for answers to this unjust world. I read the following quote,
‘[God] has so inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by observing the former; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter.’
William Blackstone, an 18th century British jurist, penned this. I found the unpacking of it fascinating. Was there a universal sense of justice? I wondered. Is this gravitational pull towards goodness in this conscience that accuses and excuses me the work of a wise architect? It made sense. Why form the moon, the stars, the earth, and mankind without a gravitational pull towards what is right and wrong.
Think about it: why does doing good for others make us happy?