Skip to main content

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.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

              Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me . (John 14:6)           If “I am the gate of the sheep…I am the good shepherd” from chapter 10 is a double whammy, this verse is a triple whammy. And its first victim is the notion that any other so-called god was acceptable or the same as Jesus. He, and He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and the only way to get to the Father. There is no other Savior, or Redeemer, according to Jesus. Now, to be fair, other religions will claim that their religion or god(s) are the only way. That is the nature of gods and of religions. If this and that are equally good and agree on what’s necessary, then this and that are the same thing, so there’s no need to from the other to one. If that’s the case, then why speak against the other or promote the one? There’s a song I’ve been listening to i...
Post a Comment
Read more