⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isa. 58:6-7, NIV)

When are you doing well? When are you really “spiritual?”

When you are looking out for the needs of others. My call isn’t necessarily to get someone else to look after the needs of others. That’s part of it. The Church truly needs to be the Church when it comes to looking out for others. Yet, if all I am doing is calling out on others to do their part, and I myself am just looking “holy” by having some sense of righteous indignation at the refusal of others to be kind… I’m still not getting it as a Christian.

I am challenged when I think about what it means to loose the chains of injustice. A few years of studying Walter Brueggemann and others has led me to understand that bringing justice isn’t just about bringing judgment into a situation, like a cop pulling over a driver for speeding. Bringing justice is bringing rightness into a situation. It is teaching righteousness. 

When I am teaching kingdom rightness and living out kingdom rightness, I am helping to loose the chains of injustice.

When I am living truly in the power of the Spirit the oppressed are set free.

Yet, what am I doing to make sure the hungry have food? What am I doing to make sure the poor have shelter? (Besides yelling at the government.)

Christ has come to set the captives free. As I fast and pray, I am to keep ever mindful of the situations right around me and ask the Spirit, “What is my part today?”