On Offsetting

Here's the thing about life: there's some sort of perfect balance to be sought for it, but it's the sort of balance that you don't really know is there until it's gone and it actually is in almost constant flux. Like in an ecological system, say, there's a balance of predators and prey and you don't know quite what the numbers should be, but you know when there are too many wolves running around Yellowstone or too many deer in your backyard. Ideally, things are left to themselves and they balance themselves out, but they often swing out of balance again. Not to mention that things are rarely ideal.
All of that is a prelude to the fact that I have been thinking lately about justice versus mercy and wondering where we find a balance between the two. With the help of friends, I've been seeing lately how often we (people of privilege or power, I think I mean) lean away from justice. For example, we try to work within an unjust power structure (our economic system) in some token way (buying products that are the color red from which some small donation will be made to AIDS projects) to do what we hope will be good (give money to organizations that will use it well, hypothetically). Or we buy carbon credits to offset the carbon from our airplane flights.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't find small ways in which to work. And I'm going to say that we work in small ways because we don't know the proper thing to do on a larger scale-- what real justice would look like. I'm going to say, moreover, that we do small things not because we are too lazy or comfortable to do the larger things (I'm rather sure that's not a safe assumption), but because we think that they are merciful/loving things to do-- the little guy gets taken care of while no harm befalls the big guy or anyone who has some finger in his/her pot either, i.e. someone gets food for the night but nobody's feelings get hurt about why a man might be homeless in the first place and what your role in that cause might be.
But, especially as the Church, especially as people who like to quote or sing about Micah 6:8, maybe we need to think a bit more about balance, about doing justly AND loving mercy. Not that we stop loving (recognizing/honoring the humanity) of those on the upper side of the power struggle (because then we'd have to stop showing mercy to ourselves) but that we don't do that to the neglect of seeking justice. Who's to say that letting people be comfortable where they are is an act of love in any case?
I'm not sure what this means for me, as I come back from Laos and decide what to do next, or for those around me, as I figure out the balance and surely swing too wide one way and then the other. But I just wanted to share my thoughts, jumbled though they may be. Feel free to share yours.