What do you want to do?

When you’re trudging along a path, it can be difficult to work out exactly where to put your feet, and easy to inadvertently stand on something delicate – a creature or a flower.

It’s not something you want to do but accidents happen.

When something is trampled on, it can be destroyed, or damaged, unless it’s very resilient it will probably never be the same again.

The same is true of people. They may not be physically trampled on, but lives are easily crushed – often by the actions of others.

Amos had a really serious message for the people of his time – well the wealthy anyway. They are to stop trampling on the needy and destroying the poor.

Amos lived in a time of great wealth and prosperity – but it was limited to the wealthy, and was in fact a consequence of injustice and oppression of the poor. Much of the apparent religious observance was insincere. People were really just waiting for the holy days to be over so that they could get back on with cheating.

They might think they’re doing a good job, but God says, “I won’t forget”. He sees what happens, the plight of the poor and the marginalised, the injustice created by those who choose to use their power wrongly – and ultimate justice will come.

Today there continues to be so much injustice and cheating in the world. We may feel that is not our responsibility, but does the way we live our lives, the standards we demand, the choices we make affect the lives, the justice, freedom and stability, of others?

People should not treat others badly. Injustice, dishonesty, making slaves of people is not the way to go.

Indeed, Paul suggests a much better way to live:

I ask you to pray for everyone. Ask God to help and bless them all, and tell God how thankful you are for each of them. Pray for kings and others in power, so that we may live quiet and peaceful lives as we worship and honor God.

That is the kind of behaviour that pleases God.

Through harassing and oppressing people, they will learn nothing of God. By prayerful support people’s lives can be changed.

So it’s a simple choice really if you want to live how God wants you to. Do we go along crushing lives, or liberating? Cheating people or releasing them? We can live carelessly or carefully. We can enslave people or bless them.