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Associate With People of Low Position

             Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12:16c) 

Conceited: Excessively proud; vain. 

Who are the lowest of the low to you? I suspect most of us have people we pray God doesn’t draw into our lives. Oh, we’re OK if He sends us to talk to someone from any of these groups, but not that group. It might be a financial issue. No uber-needy rich folks. No uber-needy poor folks. It might be racial, sexual, age-related, or cultural. Maybe it’s people with special needs, or folks who have done something horrible.  Or, we might be just fine, if only we weren’t dealing with p.e.o.p.l.e.

This is one of those issues that I cringe over. I’m sure people will accuse me of being proud and conceited. For me, the absolute worst people, the lowest of the low are the virtual or hypothetical people. I do much better at dealing with people if there are really people there to be dealt with. The issue of how I would treat some person of low position is absolutely traumatic than the issue of how I treat a person of low position. The “would” is the crux of the matter.

Yesterday, I listened to a podcast by John Ortberg in which he related two incidents in which he treated people in a way he shouldn’t have. Those incidents have given him insight into where he needs to work. That was freeing to me because it suggested that I don’t need to fret and worry about trying to prepare so that I don’t do anything wrong. It’s inevitable that I will, but until I do, it’s not a crisis.

I monitored my reactions to people at work today. The people who provoked a negative reaction are the people who don’t speak English well. The problem is one of patience, and that’s one of the things we tend to lack around people who are lower than we are in some way.

 

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