Listen. Look. Lift.

Where the Pursuit of Righteousness Begins

Listen . . . Look . . . Lift.

— Isaiah 51

Isaiah begins by identifying his audience:

“Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord.”

I find it interesting that those two things are placed together. Pursuing righteousness. Seeking the Lord.

Perhaps we separate them too easily.

We all seem to have some concept of things being right. Even someone who has no religious faith may say, “I just believe in being a good person.” We may disagree considerably about what “good” means, but the statement itself acknowledges something important. There is good and there is evil. There is justice and injustice. There are ways of treating other human beings that are right, and ways that are wrong.

For the believer trying to become a peacemaker, perhaps that's something to notice rather than something to argue with.

When someone tells me that they simply want to be a good person, I don't necessarily need to pounce upon the opening and turn it immediately into an evangelistic presentation. I can smile. Listen. Recognize the spark. If someone is genuinely searching for what is good, right, just and true, I believe that search may eventually bring them nearer to God than they realize.

And then I can be patient.

Righteousness, after all, covers an enormous amount of territory. Justice certainly belongs there. Things cannot be right when people are being treated unjustly, and Christians should be able to affirm that wherever we find people genuinely working for justice.

But righteousness doesn't stop there.

It follows me home.

How do I conduct my own life? Am I honest? Do I cheat someone in a business transaction? Do I take something from an employer that isn't mine? Do I keep promises? How do I handle money, appetites, sexuality and all the other human hungers that become troublesome when they begin governing us rather than the other way around? Am I merciful? Am I faithful? Am I trustworthy?

Suddenly righteousness isn't nearly as useful for pointing at somebody else.

Its footprint is too large.

None of us escapes its demands.

So what does Isaiah tell people who are pursuing righteousness to do? Does he tell them first to persuade everybody else? Protest? Win elections? Post another argument? Become angry enough to start a revolution?

No.

Throughout this short passage, three instructions stand out to me.

Listen. Look. Lift.

Listen to the Lord.

Look to the rock from which you were hewn. Isaiah tells Israel to look back to Abraham and Sarah, to remember where they came from and what God was able to make from very small beginnings.

Then lift up your eyes to the heavens.

Before Isaiah sends me running out to repair the world, he changes the direction of my attention.

Toward God.

That seems particularly important to me right now because I've been thinking so much about shalom—the peace that is whole, complete and rightly aligned. If I really want peace, justice and righteousness, perhaps my first task isn't to get everybody else properly aligned.

It's to become aligned myself.

Listen to Him. Look to Him and to what He has already done. Lift my eyes toward Him. Lift my hands toward Him. Reach toward Him.

Then perhaps I'll be better prepared to reach toward somebody else.

And maybe that is useful when I encounter another person who is also seeking righteousness, even if that person doesn't use my vocabulary, share my theology, vote the way I do, or even believe in God.

I don't have to shove.

I don't have to win.

I can notice what they're seeking and walk alongside them for a while.

Because if Isaiah is right, righteousness ultimately isn't something we manufacture by becoming angry enough about everything that's wrong.

We begin by turning toward the One who makes things right.

Listen. Look. Lift.

And perhaps, from there, we learn how to make peace.