To Seek Justice, Commit to the Heart

(and Count the Cost)

If this is our truth, then we act on it with an awakened heart. (Photo by Daniel Thürler on Unsplash)

Awakening to spiritual consciousness engages the heart as the operating system to process life and make connections that involve commitment. In a society, we tend to make an agreement within ourselves, an agreement that says the nature of connection is worth speaking about, acting on, and promoting.

Seeking social justice requires commitment. In the Bible in Luke 14:28, Jesus spoke to crowds: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?” (New International Version http://biblehub.com/niv/luke/14.htm). When facing challenges of a heart commitment, no matter how simple or how daunting, we must answer the question of whether or not we will see it through, regardless of the odds of success.

Ego will chime in to fulfill its purpose to protect, many times with “common sense” prods and pleas: “Hey, you’re not making enough money; you’re only helping a few; you’re causing problems; you need to quit now.”

Heart would simply say something like this: “All in!” This doesn’t mean questions, doubts, fears, ridicule, persecution, or hosts of other oppositions won’t appear. They will. Counting the cost means we are all in, we will face challenges, and we will enthusiastically, passionately, and intelligently engage life — on our own terms. All in means we move onward and upward.

Counting the Cost: If It’s Not All in, It’s Not Heart!

I wonder how often Dr. Martin Luther King was faced with his own ego-energy to just quit for his own safety, well-being, and peace of mind. In his “Letter from the Birmingham City Jail,” he counted the cost of living his Heart-truth.

Dr. King and his people had been fed empty promises, and in patience and love, they acknowledged the difficulties and continued: “Like so many experiences of the past we were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us. …We were not unmindful of the difficulties involved” (King 3). He counted the cost realistically in terms of emotions and possible physical and legal ramifications. Counting the cost means preparing for eventualities, and for those dear souls, it meant having sufficient reasoning and…