<![CDATA[CHRISTIAN LEGAL AID OF LOS ANGELES

<![CDATA[CHRISTIAN LEGAL AID OF LOS ANGELES - Blog]]>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 13:58:41 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Happy Easter!]]>Mon, 02 Apr 2018 18:06:14 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/happy-easterHappy Easter from all of us at CLA-LA!

As we celebrate the risen Christ, we remember the truth that life conquers death, hope conquers despair, and love conquers all. We revel in the triumph of the resurrection. We hear the proclamation in the garden: “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said! Come, see the place where He lay.”

How absurd and wonderful that this becomes the greatest proclamation of God’s work in the world: Jesus is not here.

What the angel at the tomb announces is that this absence is actually the truest testimony of Divine presence. To these women, and to anyone with eyes of faith, the angel offers this invitation: "Come and see! The empty tomb is not an insult added to injury, but rather the inauguration of a whole new way of life.”

We are called out to the places where life seems dimmed, where injustice seems final, where hope seems extinguished. Because that's not always what we find. Sometimes where we expect our worst fears to be finally confirmed, we find a pregnant pause. We encounter the emptiness of the tomb. And in the void—in the imprints left where God once was—we find hope and life again.

So that is the invitation I want to extend to you: Come and see. Set aside your confidences about where joy can be found. Sit with someone whose life looks unlike yours. Recognize the possibilities in impossible situations. You can’t know what to expect; you never know what you will find. It just might be a place of resurrection.

That’s one of the best things about CLA-LA: together, we are finding God in the world, in the needs of our neighbors, in acquaintances becoming friends, in people discovering the work of justice. We’re refusing to concede the inevitability of oppression. And—sometimes when we least expect it—we are seeing hope catch its breath and watching new life begin. ]]><![CDATA[In Transit]]>Wed, 06 Dec 2017 01:29:41 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/in-transitAdvent is upon us! In this season, we share in a time of anticipation; we know that Christmas is coming, but it is not here yet. The world waits, and we wait with it.

I recently had an experience that brought this into new light for me. I’d placed an order online, and received the emailed notification: “Your package has shipped!” In the grand scheme of things it’s a pretty trivial thing to wait for a cardboard box to show up on your doorstep. Still, the week between that automated promise in my inbox and the expected delivery date was punctuated with small moments of anticipation.

Finally the delivery date came. And went.

The joy and frustration of modern technology are contained so well in the string of numbers and letters that allow us to track packages as they move—or don’t. This time, the status alternated between “out for delivery” and something more frustratingly nonspecific: “in transit.”

Those two words—in transit—carry the hope and frustration of this season. Perhaps we’re the ones in between: between being a child and being a parent, between jobs or churches, between who we were and who we’re becoming. Maybe we feel like we’re finally in the right place, but the things we expected to be there haven’t arrived yet. Something’s still missing. Something’s in transit.

And so we wait.

Advent doesn’t tell us precisely the date that we can expect to see God show up in our lives, the time and place our hope will arrive. Even in the Christmas story, hope is wrapped up in displacement and God makes his home with us even as Mary and Joseph are far from home. But Advent reminds us of something important.

Advent testifies that our hope is not confined to a delivery date. It’s not in a cardboard box, whatever its contents and however well-wrapped. Our hope may be in transit, but it’s not lost or misplaced. When delivery dates recede into the past, when our eagerness is replaced by restlessness, and when anticipation gives way to exhaustion, we light a candle and keep waiting.

Advent promises us this in our waiting: because of Jesus, we know and believe that God is the one who comes. We see God in Christ, not as a cosmic wish-granter or inspirational figure, but as the One who comes to us in transit. We put our faith in Jesus, the delivered and the deliverer.

Advent invites us to remember. Whether our time in transit feels joyful or weary, we remember that our hope is in Christ: the God who comes.

]]><![CDATA[Finding Hope Together]]>Tue, 26 Sep 2017 16:03:07 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/finding-hope-together

This blog post was written by Sharon Cho, who served with CLA-LA as an administrative assistant for the last two years. She leaves us to continue the pursuit of justice at her church and in her community. Thanks so much for sharing your life and love with us!

One of my favorite hours working at CLA-LA was “existential crisis hour” every Thursday, at 11AM. Half-jokingly, the interim Executive Director Susan Vincent and I would allow ourselves this hour to question the meaning of life. We wrestled through all of the current tribulations occurring in our world, struggled to confront our personal attributions towards those problems, and questioned how we could even help, in spite of all the restrictions we were surrounded by.

It was conversations like these that strangely brought consolation because it gave me permission to feel understood and not alone, as well as the opportunity to dialogue and learn.

This is a glimpse of what CLA-LA has given to me and to so many others.

I’m thankful to have been given the literal space to have many honest conversations with people from different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. My eyes have been opened to neighbors, communities, stories, and struggles that I would have normally never have met or been exposed to. Every conversation I’ve had, whether it’s been with a client, volunteer, attorney, or staff member has shown me a glimpse of the image of the Father, and His unfolding will to see all of Creation live out His story.

I’ve been inspired by the resilience of the human spirit to continue hoping in life and seeking God, despite their unfavorable circumstances. Stories of people thanking God for changing their life during prison, or immigrants still turning to God for help even when their spouses had just been deported or when they were on the verge of losing everything. Through these conversations, I’ve been challenged in my ignorance, yet thankful to have been given a safe space to vocalize it and dialogue to be changed and transformed.

Though I’ve encountered countless stories of hopelessness and frustrations because of the limitations of the law, there has always been the sight of hope. Whether it was through a client’s smile after a prayer, or one of our own volunteer attorney’s staying after clinic hours to listen and give advice.

I walk away CLA-LA feeling more courageous to go into places of unfamiliarity and discomfort, empowered to keep an open heart and mind towards others, equipped to love and give more than I have ever before. My time here has simplified my notions of what life is supposed to be about: to discover the love and will of God for me and creation by listening, seeking, and serving those around me. I walk away humbled by the justice and compassion I witnessed, and empowered to share what I have learned to all of the people I meet in this next season of life.

]]><![CDATA[The Call of Easter]]>Mon, 17 Apr 2017 17:07:49 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/the-call-of-easterI don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like the world keeps getting crazier. It seems to be dying, and it’s not a peaceful process. We try to tune it out or look away. We feel the temptation to withdraw, to shrink the scope of our concern to what we can control, to inhabit smaller and smaller worlds until we feel some sense of safety.

But this is not the way of the Cross; it is not the way of resurrection. The Cross transforms suffering, not by keeping it at a distance, but by Christ taking the world’s suffering upon Himself. On the Cross we see Jesus’s body broken and blood spilled. On the Cross we see what God’s presence in the world looks like.

If we take the Cross at face value, it doesn’t look like good news. It looks like failure. It looks like death. But through eyes of faith, we see God at work redeeming the world.

So this is the call of Easter, the invitation to which we must now respond: Come and die, that you might truly live.

We respond to this call every day as we encounter the needs of the people around us.

At CLA-LA, our staff and volunteers are brought face-to-face with the needs of our neighbors at our legal clinics. The family trying to make ends meet, watching as inconveniences pile up into impossibilities, listening as promises of help ring hollow. The woman whose love for her children keeps her going, and the man whose past challenges are matched by his determination to show up for his kids. People dealing with the end of a job, a breach of trust, the loss of housing, an unexpected trauma, the death of a loved one. Many times we discover answers together; our volunteers and clients work together to see solutions take shape. But sometimes the way forward isn't clear.

Whether we are dealing with issues that arise in our own lives or seeking to provide help to others, sometimes answers elude us. Sometimes all we can do is acknowledge the reality of heartbreak, of disappointment, of injustice. But even then we know that these are not last word.

At the same time and in the same place that we encounter life's most difficult struggles, the Spirit is at work bringing new creation. But we'll miss it if we hide from the world around us and focus only on what we can control. We won't hear it if we only ask the questions for which we already have the answers. We won't see it if we look away.

So this Easter week, don’t turn away from the world’s suffering. Give up trying to hold on to a shallow sense of control; stop chasing validation through success. Place the whole weight of your life and concerns in the hands of the One who died for you. Look for the Spirit's work in the places you'd rather ignore.

Answer the call of Easter to go courageously toward the world's pain, not away from it.

And do so in hope—hope in the God of resurrection.

]]><![CDATA[The Surprise of Christmas]]>Mon, 05 Dec 2016 18:43:10 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/the-surprise-of-christmasOne of the best things about Christmas is that it is nothing like we expected.

Perhaps Joseph believed that he could serve God by fighting with his sons against oppression and injustice. In a way, he did exactly that: his son broke the chains of sin and death and led captivity captive. But the baby in a manger looked nothing like he expected.

Perhaps Mary looked forward to a life of faithful obedience to the law, love for her family, and service to her community. In a sense, she got exactly that: she was the mother of Christ, the one who came to perfectly fulfill the law and whose sacrifice brought salvation to the whole world. But the baby in a manger looked nothing like she expected.

The Israelites expected a King, a political hero who could match power with power and restore Israel’s rightful place in the world. The Pharisees expected a defender of morality, who would vindicate their scrupulous sacrifices and uphold what was right by condemning those who sinned and stumbled. The Romans expected a rabble-rouser who would attempt a violent rebellion, stirring up fear and hatred to motivate his followers and contest their rule.

But God in a manger looked nothing like they expected.

We often see this dynamic at work at our clinics - volunteers come expecting to give, and they receive; professionals come with a lifetime of answers, and leave with new questions; students come expecting to learn, and they teach. Sometimes clients expect to get rid of their problems, but what they get is a way through; sometimes they expect the worst, but receive good news; sometimes the law provides no answer or relief, but together we find hope in Christ.

The justice of God looks nothing like we expected: it looks less like a courtroom, and more like Christmas.

This season, our prayer for you is that you are surprised by Jesus. That like Zacharias, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, and Anna, your eyes would be opened to see the Messiah for whom the whole world was waiting. And that your heart would not be disappointed by unmet expectations, but rather be filled with joyful hope as you see God working His redemption and justice in the world.

Christmas is not what we expect. It's better.

]]><![CDATA[Serving this Summer at CLA-LA]]>Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:41:39 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/serving-this-summer-at-cla-laThis blog post was written by Nolan Scarr, a 2016 Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Summer Intern at CLA-LA.

I believe being a Christian lawyer offers a unique and special place within the body of Christ. We possess gifts and talents that our brothers and sisters in Christ need access to, and with Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles we’re able to reach those who need it the most. Here we don’t solely rely on the expertise of our knowledge, but also appeal to our God and invite Him to be part of the solution. Even if a client doesn’t have a relationship with Christ, we’ll take the time to help them and love them as our neighbor. My summer internship with CLA-LA has shown me what it looks like to be a Christian lawyer in a society that is desperate for God’s help.

At CLA-LA, we offer free legal clinics throughout Los Angeles County to those who are most vulnerable in society. No matter what the legal issue may be, our doors are open to offer assistance to our client’s needs. We offer help in educating our clients, and preparing documents to empower them with the legal knowledge and know how to navigate through their legal problem.

I’ll most remember the client we assisted at one of our regular locations. This man was looking to get his record clean to assist him in pursuing legal immigration status in the future. He was a former gang member who had been shot in the spine at a young age and was to be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. I thought it would be difficult to connect with him given our very different life experiences but found this wasn’t the case. I asked about his plans for Fourth of July. He told me he was going camping with his family, and I shared with him my plans to be on the beach for the weekend. By the end of our appointment, I learned he had a daughter, and that he wanted to get involved with a church small group. I emphasized the importance of having a church group to walk with and encouraged him to make it a priority to get involved.

He mentioned he still experiences pain in his back due to the incident several years ago. I shared with him the pain I experienced from being diagnosed with arthritis at a young age and told him some of my remedies to control the pain. He actually wrote them down and was going to look into them. He thanked everyone for filling out documents and explaining the next steps he needed to take, but when he shook my hand and thanked me for talking with him, I knew this was a special moment, one that I still can’t rightly explain in words.

My time with CLA has been a blessing, and I am so grateful for the grace God has given me that has allowed me to take part in His mission to reach out to the most vulnerable in our society.

]]><![CDATA[Learning to Love Justice]]>Thu, 12 May 2016 17:50:02 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/learning-to-love-justice"He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.”

Psalms 33:5 ESV

The Lord loves justice.

One of the beautiful and convicting realizations that comes from this simple statement is how inseparable justice is from a right understanding of God and His purposes. Imagine for a moment that you were to describe the nature of God - how would you begin? Would you start with His love? His power? His work as Creator and Redeemer?

Here’s how the Lord describes himself:

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.”

Deuteronomy 10:17-19 ESV

How do we respond to this revelation?

What if—as uncomfortable as it is to admit—we don’t love justice like the Lord does? Do we try to unseat our complacency with knowledge, reading and learning about the injustices beyond our experience? Do we berate ourselves into “doing more”, working harder, striving to fix the myriad injustices we encounter and make up with our own resources the poverty and that we see?

Certainly learning is important, as is putting action to our intent. But I would suggest that when we see “doing justice” as merely a task assigned to us, we miss its deeper place in our worship. We forget to love. We see the need, and miss the beauty. And so we stop short; we withdraw; the gap between what we know we should do and the things we love grows wider and deeper.

It doesn’t have to be this way. What if we recognized the act of doing justice, not simply as an act of obedience, but as a means of grace? What if by orienting our days and our habits rightly, we could actually cultivate a deep love for justice? What if our calling is to discover the Lord already at work doing justice and—as we align our actions with His—to find our hearts transformed?

In worship we don’t just come to show God our devotion and give Him our praise; we are called to worship because in this encounter God (re)makes and moulds us top-down. Worship is the arena in which God recalibrate our hearts, reforms our desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us. … The liturgy of Christian worship is the litany of love we pray over and over again, given to us by the Spirit precisely in order to cultivate the love he sheds abroad in our hearts.

James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

How can you begin to see doing justice as formative worship? Where can you build into your life the practices of doing justice, inviting the Lord to model your loves and desires after His own?

]]><![CDATA[A Beautiful Exchange]]>Thu, 24 Mar 2016 22:46:14 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/a-beautiful-exchangeThis post was written by staff member Sharon Cho, who joined CLA-LA as our Administrative Assistant last fall.

Joining CLA-LA has been a gift to me. I didn’t completely know what I was signing up for as I joined the staff of two, but 6 months in I am eternally grateful that I have been given something that can never compare with any monetary value or treasure here on earth.

What has been given you ask?

The gift of humanity.

I’ll try my best to explain myself:

Working behind-the-scenes, and now having attended 6 clinics, it’s been an honor to witness the provision that CLA gives to those that don’t have the necessary means in obtaining it. I’ve seen countless clients, after meeting with our volunteer attorneys, looking satisfied as they walked away with specific plans tailored to their legal issues.

However, the more that I get the chance to interact with these clients face-to-face or over the phone, I always tend to feel like I’ve received more from them than I actually do in the giving.

When they invite me into hearing their stories, I am reminded that the most vulnerable, unseen, and forgotten are in fact themselves sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers. They remind me of the commonality that we all share: we are all humans, a precious gift given to us by our Creator.

One of the very first phone calls I had wrecked me in this revelation:

The client was a mother of two who was going into trial in hopes to gain custody over her kids from an abusive ex-husband. Unfortunately, restricted from giving any kind of legal advice over the phone, the best that I could do in that moment was give her a reference to a family law center.

After she enthusiastically received the information, I asked her if I could end the call by praying for her. She immediately said yes with desperation. As soon as the word “amen” left my lips, she was in tears and exclaimed “I don’t even know your name and you’re a stranger, but I feel like I know you!” She proceeded to tell me that she felt the strength and courage to keep going and not lose hope because she was reminded that God was with her.

More often than not, I meet with clients like this mother who are beyond thankful that somebody out there took the time to hear their story. As I give what I can with the resources that I have, I am met by a God who uses that moment to make Himself known, to reveal His unconditional love and provision He has for all of humanity.

Further, I’m always confronted with my own limitations to love and serve without measure; but it’s in these times that God reveals it’s His grace that meets us in our weakness - to strengthen, to love without conditions, to pour out without calculation, and to give without the need of return.

As we enter this Easter weekend, let us remember the beautiful exchange that occurred that day on the cross - when a loving King came to exchange all of who He was for the redemption of all of creation. CLA-LA has shown me that this same exchange can be made possible here and now, as we continue to commit ourselves to loving the one in front, drawing out the best in one another, and in turn, fully living out this gift we call humanity.

]]><![CDATA[Be Like Jesus]]>Mon, 22 Feb 2016 16:33:28 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/be-like-jesusThis Lenten season I have been reflecting upon the life of Jesus and how we are to be like Him.

In Philippians 2, Paul speaks to the church. He says they are to be united in mind and love, and humble. They are not to do things out of selfish ambition but to put others before themselves. He encourages them by focusing on the humility of Jesus--God Himself became a servant who died a gruesome death on their behalf.

"Be like Jesus" is a saying we hear so often it can seem like a pat phrase, but the reality is that it is the standard for our lives. Putting others before ourselves means laying down our lives and what we are entitled to so that another might benefit.

This is not the way of the world. Whether it's in our jobs, schools, or personal relationships, the questions that guide our actions are often self-centered: "How does this benefit me?" "Should I even put in the effort?" "What will be my return on investment?"

Yet Jesus shows us another way. He shows us that love is willing to sacrifice. He humbled Himself to the point of death so that we might experience life. And we are called to know and be like Him so others may know Him too.

These are the questions I am asking this Lenten season, and I invite you to join me: "What areas of my heart need to change so Jesus is reflected more in my life?" "Am I laying down my life so others can see His goodness and know the greatness of His love?"

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. - Philippians 2:1-8

]]><![CDATA[Christ is Enough]]>Thu, 14 Jan 2016 17:33:35 GMThttps://www.cla-la.org/blog/christ-is-enoughAt the start of the new year, we often find ourselves reviewing the past and taking stock of our lives. Many times we stand in wonder of what the Lord has accomplished in our lives and the wondrous gifts He has given to us. All too often, however, we stand at the measure and find ourselves lacking. Whether due to unforeseen setbacks, or failures of will, or disappointing circumstances, we are unsettled by our own shortcomings. We are not where—or who—we hoped to be.

Perhaps this tendency is exacerbated among those of us who thrive on achievement. For those for whom improvement is a continual goal and competition an alluring challenge, the sting of shortcoming can be particularly painful. Whether our ideals are material, intellectual, relational, or even spiritual, we feel the dissonance when we don’t measure up. So we resolve to try harder, to be better, to make changes. We try desperately to control everything from our emotions to our environments. And yet the suspicion that this year might nevertheless turn out like any other persists in the back of our minds.

But what is the alternative? Do we simply accept that life is beyond our control, that entropy is the fate of all things, and that—in the words of Solomon—everything is meaningless? Or can we find some assurance that our efforts are not without meaning, whether or not we live up to the expectations we set for ourselves?

The Gospel provides us with a better way. Not, perhaps, with the answers to the myriad questions we would ask, but instead with the assurance our hearts most desperately need: Christ is enough, His grace is sufficient, and His kingdom is everlasting. When our years come to their final end, it is not a list of lived-out resolutions that we need, nor the self-satisfaction of goals achieved. We must be found in Him. And in Him, we will find everything we need.

So as we orient ourselves toward the future, may we remember these things: We are all homeless, without true belonging or real security, until we find our eternal home in Him. We strive with little return until we find our meager efforts subsumed in His great work of redemption. We cannot see the way to go, let alone complete the journey, until we find in Him our light and our strength.

From all of us at CLA-LA, may you discover this year that Christ is enough. May your heart be at peace as you find in Him your home, your strength, and your joy.

]]>