Unabashed

             Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10)

Honor (verb.) To regard with great respect; to fulfill an obligation or keep an agreement.

 How in the world do you honor people? Sometimes, I think we honor them with our presence. It’s not that we think so highly of them, but that we are bestowing upon them the honor of associating with us. But this sort of honor has two sides. On one side, a person given the honor to join a group may be encouraged or built up by the association. On the other side, the group might effectively pat itself on the back, or honor itself for the association. This is the “I took you from the gutter, and I can put  you back there, so show some gratitude” idea.

Some people seem to think we should honor one another with the equivalent of “participation trophies.” You’re here, you must be one of us, we’ll nod to show our approval, or we’ll give you a certificate to show you’re one of us. But again, that seems to be

Some people are easy to honor because they’ve done this, that, and the other, but the point is that you know what they’ve done. They’re Somebody. Part of that means that by associating with them, we’ve gained honor for ourselves. We’re with Somebody, which means we’re at least somebody.

But what this verse is suggesting is that we should be making Somebody out of everybody, even if they’re a nobody. In comparison, we should make ourselves “nobodies.”

How do we do this? The first step, of course, is prayer. Ask God to reveal what is honorable or lovely in that person. Then, pay attention. One of the things I noticed when I returned to Erie this spring is how much more impressive some people I’ve tended to overlook have become, and part of that was because of the example set by some of the folks in class, who have been unabashed in their honoring of others. That sounds like a good thing to be