“A” is for Advocate

Since Thursday night, when I signed my name about twenty times, I have been the owner of a cute, little blue car. My excitement quickly soured when I learned how badly I had been overcharged. And so, for the two days following, I tried reasoning my way through whether I should try contesting the final sale, even though I had no recourse with all of the paperwork completed, or simply accept the charges, and quietly walk away with a car. Both prospects brought distress – because I knew the futility of my trying to fight a dealership which had already intimidated me, and because simply conceding left me feeling overpowered and angry at my own foolishness.

I spent most of Friday churning and rehearsing a dozen and one little rants, ranging from compassionate appeal to outright accusation, all of which I would level at the finance manager who had left me feeling so ill-at-ease with the deal. When the impossibility of my overcoming a corporation finally sunk in, I determined that I would simply hand the already-printed cashier’s check to the salesperson, and absorb the loss as a painful lesson.

But the questions that charged through my mind were mainly directed vertically. Is meekness penalized; can there be no justice for one who isn’t tenacious? What kind of system is this if the defenseless are the ones who are most preyed upon, and there is no one to be spokesperson? “Who will stand up for me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for me against those who do wickedness?” (Psalm 94:16).

I had been on the phone and e-mailing my parents, and had tried to make contact with an uncle, who quickly replied that he would help. But when most of the day had passed, and I still hadn’t heard back from him, I resigned myself to simply returning to the car lot without a fight.*

What I hadn’t counted on was the sight of both uncle and aunt striding up the walkway by mid-afternoon. And relief started to emerge. Regardless of what would come, there was someone to come alongside me and at least take up my case; the consequence mattered less to me than the fact that someone had shown up.

And so, with my aunt giving me a huge embrace, and my uncle armed with an attitude ready to ‘overturn some money tables,’ I headed back to the place where, not long before, I had joyously taken ownership of something that had hastily become a grief. There was a chill in me which anticipated a nasty tension, even as I was still musing gratefully over my uncle’s coming.

It was as I sat in the dealership that there was a shift. For, it was as my uncle laid a firm, articulate case about how the salesperson had taken advantage of me, that I watched this finance manager, so menacing to me not forty-eight hours before, turn sheepish eyes away from my family member, then slink to the back room to ‘talk with his boss.’ After some negotiating, the price was talked down – something which my uncle (who seemed to be having a good time on the offensive!) twice remarked to me as being ‘unprecedented,’ considering the contract had already been sealed. And something in me was transformed.

As I walked back through the parking lot, the anger and distress were unwrapped, for I could hold my head with dignity again. It wasn’t that I had any less weakness in me, but that I had one who had positioned himself beside me to speak for my rights when I had no voice. First John 2:1 calls such an advocate 'one called alongside to help' [paracletos].

And this is what it means when God declares, “‘For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery… and I will faithfully give them their recompense’” (Isaiah 61:8). He has not argued a case simply because He alone has the power to rightly avenge (see Js. 1:20, also Ro. 12:19, Lev. 19:18), but because His love for justice drives Him to set aright the injury; because defrauding and depriving a man of justice are things of which He does not approve (Lam. 3:35).

I look upon the stress of those hours in between, when feeling exploited and helpless, and recognize now with gratitude that all of those tears were washing away the fallacies I harbored about God’s nature. I could have walked out of that dealership with a great price on a car Thursday night; could have enjoyed the vehicle and never looked back.

But what I received far transcended that gift – because what I came to grasp, through that sobering recognition of what I had lost, was the raw potency of the One who would fight to recover my losses. And what I learned, through the distress of having been overpowered, was how masterfully my Intercessor can utterly disarm the one in the wrong. And what I glean, having been caught up in a circumstance which was initiated by the One fighting for me, was that I am not the one upon whom justice depends. I am neither required nor able to defend myself. But I serve a God who has required of Himself that He would stand in my stead, pursuing the justice I cannot acquire, rectifying the wrongs to which I cannot hold another accountable for redressing.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 shouts this: “Thus says the LORD, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving-kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the LORD.”

Alleluia, Amen!



* My uncle actually had e-mailed back within a few hours (time stamped at 11:18 AM); the e-mail simply didn’t come through until after we both got home from the dealership.

** Cool side note: the paint color is the same royal blue as the letter "A," yet one more reason to be mindful, every time I see the car, that "A" is for Advocate! :o)