I have been wrestling with something this past week: the friction between justice and mercy.  God has many amazing character traits, and justice is the one that resonates most with me. But for another friend I was talking to last week, the quality that resonates with her the most is mercy. 

As most of you know, this fall Jay and I are making a documentary film about sex trafficking in Canada.  When it comes to this issue, I feel like justice and mercy butt heads.  When I think about the victims of trafficking, I want to demonstrate God’s mercy. But when it comes to the traffickers who rape, abuse, and sell them, I want God to bring down His justice: to lock them up and throw away the key.

But God’s Word is so clear that sin is the real issue. Traffickers themselves are enslaved and need God’s salvation.  How can they be healed in an imperfect correctional system? Most jails make them harder and smarter while robbing them of heart and life change.  So the question is: how can we show traffickers God’s mercy while simultaneously protecting the oppressed and powerless? How can we administer justice in a Godly way while we are imperfect people living in a fallen world? 

I threw this question up on facebook to get peoples’ input.  One response that I got was so wise, and I can sum it up in one word: redemption.  To quote: “It may be a hard thing to swallow, but might I suggest that a key element of what God has called you to in this ministry is redemption; not just of the victims, but also of the traffickers.”

I don’t know what that looks like.  But I want to spend the rest of my trusting God’s wisdom to figure that out.  Redemption.  What a beautiful, hope-filled word to apply to a dark, dark issue.

How can you practice redemption in your life?

Michelle