I saw the movie The Help today and was reminded about how not so long ago it was socially acceptable to treat certain people differently because of their skin color. I’m sure there were many back then who were opposed to such discrimination, but went along with it any way rather than buck the system.

I was also reminded that saying that all evil needs is for good men (or women) to do nothing. I also was reminded that it really only takes one person to make a difference. Just one.

Sure, times have changed. Yet in some ways, they really haven’t. Maybe it’s not discrimination. Maybe it’s more like sacrificing family for career. Or maybe it’s playing religion instead of really following Jesus. Every generation has a choice, I think, to be a part of the status quo or to speak out.

I think from what I understand of the Bible that God is for those who are outside the status quo. His heart is for the outsider and the outcast. He is for the rejects and the nobodies. He chose the nothings of the world to shame the A-listers of the world.

I love the way Bono of U2 put it. He said, “”God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them”

So the question remains: will you choose to remain silent and stick with the status quo or will you speak up and stand up for the defensless and the hopeless and the outcast?

I can look in my mirror and see one of the guily party looking back. I haven’t spoken up. I have been silent for far too long.

Lord, give us courage to speak for those who have no voice and to defend those who can’t defend themselves. Give us Your heart for the outcast and the broken. Especially me.