Happy Saturday morning!
This week, we are finishing off the passage in James about treating everyone the same. As I said early on, this hits very close to home because of my job. I try to stay out of politics here, but when we started being told we could not discuss equity, it was a blow. I will be very frank. We see a lot of people in our offices that are beaten down by society, and that makes them beat up on themselves. Have you ever really thought about the fact that you not treating someone with the respect you would like to be treated with could be their final straw? We see so many suicides in school kids anymore. I remember the days very well of being made fun of at school, and being bullied. There were people who I think really lived to get to call me fatso. I had an escape though, I could come home and get away from it, I always hope people grow out of being that "better than you person" but unfortunately, you see some of their actions on Facebook and see them making fun of people when they are almost 60 years old and you realize they are still at it. It is sad. It is something that we can do something about though, we can be the change. I belong to a committee at our National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition that is all about making sure people are treated equal, no matter what they are living through, we had a lot of discussion after the first of the year about whether we could keep the committee without threatening our funding because the name of our committee had several banned words in it. Anyway, we decided to carry on, and I am glad we did.
We are moving into a short passage this week, James 2:12-13
So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
With our HEAR method:
Verse 12 Highlight = judged by the law of liberty. Explain= James wants us to remember we are ALL sinners. None of us are any better in God's eyes than anyone else. When you have learned how God loves, do you really believe he looks down and sees a man with a $2,000 suit on and says, "Hey, I love him so much more than the man in ragged clothes standing by a fire made from an oil barrel trying to stay warm". If you really believe that for a second, you have a lot to learn. God originally made all of us with nothing but dependence on Him. None of us have any material things that God cares about at all. HE cares about our souls, we were told more than once to make sure those who don't have as much as us are taken care of. He also points out more than once that wealth means nothing to Him, so why let it continue meaning everything to us? Apply= We really need to practice seeing people the same. Because we are born with a sinful nature, it is in our nature to want to want to be liked by the pretty people but we need to make sure we are setting our own bias aside when it comes to how we treat people. Now, let's talk about treating people well versus approval of what they do or how they live. I have struggled with how to love people who are living their lives totally outside of God's will. We know we are not to judge and so I always try to leave the judging to God and just love. I want to show Jesus to those who don't believe like me. I try to think of all the times in the Bible when Jesus encountered sinners. Did he start in on them immediately, and say, "Hey, you aren't living right, you are a prostitute, you are a thief, you are a liar". Nope, Jesus offered gentleness and kindness. I always feel like He was one of those people in the room that made you feel better just being there. I think that is the epitome of being like Jesus. I will not give my opinion of someone's lifestyle to them if I just met them. I honestly won't give my opinion of their lifestyle at all unless they ask. I will show Jesus through my lifestyle though. Respond= Lord, please help me treat everyone equally, please let me put aside any biases I may have because someone doesn't look or act like me. Help me be kind, caring, and most importantly a safe place for all your children. They are my brothers and sisters and we are ALL sons and daughters of the One True King.
and then verse 13.
Highlight = Mercy triumphs over judgement. Explain = This is really just driving the above point home. If Jesus sacrificing His very life for each one of us is God's greatest gift, it seems to me that it is also the greatest gift we can give to each other. Apply=I have really been trying to keep my eyes open this week to being merciful. I have been trying to think before I speak and remember words said to me are more than likely really not even directed at me but at a situation we really know nothing about. What is funny is I know there are certain people I work with that I am to the point, I put my guard up every time I get a message, email, or see that it is them calling me on the phone, I actually say a short prayer that God lets me be nice. I don't know weather they have truly been calmer this week or if I am just letting that mercy boil up a little more inside of me since I am paying attention. It is more than likely the latter and I will tell you, it is nice. Honestly, the only thing that I even remember, after my reference last week to someone cutting me off is I had a motorcycle pull out in front of me on my way home from church last week. Andrew commented and I just said, "There is a reason he needs to get someplace 3 minutes faster." and I was calm, instead of mad, and it felt good. Respond= Lord, help me show mercy more than any other emotion in my life. Let me be Jesus for those around us, no matter their stature or circumstance.
So, we made it through these verses and last week, I had shared this to my own Facebook page and our Pastor commented with some thoughts I thought I would share.
He asked why do we favor certain types of people? Why is showing favoritism a sin, and what does this tell us about God. Hopefully, through the 4 weeks, I have answered those to a certain degree, but you can use this to make it person.
I hope you have a great Saturday! I was supposed to be super busy today and leaving the house in less than 24 hours to be gone for a week so I changed my schedule and bowed out of a commitment of being at an outreach event today. Others were already planning on covering it, so I wasn't leaving anyone in a lurch but sometimes you got to know your limits. I hope this started your day off in the right direction.
~Mindy
OHHHH, one more thing, do your really want to know where your biases lie? Here is a site that you can take explicit bias tests. I was shocked at some of my own biases but it also mad me more aware that I did have those biases and I try to overcome them daily. These tests are free.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
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