An uncomfortable truth.
Dear friend,
I want to share with you a conversation and train of thought that I have had these past few days, but I also want to warn you -these thoughts will likely make you feel just a bit uncomfortable.
When first brought to me I was quick to excuse them away. I wanted to feel better.
If you are still willing to join me for this, I invite you to be slow to excuse and to sit with this alongside me for just a moment. I am eager to walk this road with you.
We were driving home on a country road that stretched out long and straight. The babies slept in the back seats and it was a rare moment of quiet, uninterrupted conversation between the two of us.
We talked about a handful of situations where we noticed a common thread when the words from the second chapter of James hit a bit too close to home.
The sin of partiality.
It’s that chapter in the Bible that you read and feel a bit of a sick feeling of disgust swell up inside of you. You might be quick to reflect on the gratitude you hold that you would never be caught in such an ugly trap and to pray for those who would so unashamedly show preference to another.
But here we were, driving straight towards the sunset realizing the many times we’ve been the subject of such a story.
You see, there are those whom you and I find enjoyable to serve and there are those that come with their many needs and cries for help that we turn our eyes away from because we don’t like what serving them will mean for us.
It will be uncomfortable.
It will be a fumbling attempt.
It will mean that we might get some of their mess on us.
But I believe that is exactly what James 2 is referring to when it talks about the sin of partiality. We are prone to picking and choosing the ones we want to serve and we are prone to giving them the best seats while ignoring the ones that will cost us.
The word partiality means: The fault of one who when called on to give judgment has respect of the outward circumstances of man and not to their intrinsic merits, and so prefers, as the more worthy, one who is rich, high born, or powerful, to another who does not have these qualities
As we talked about our own propensity toward this type of behavior within our own community I shared a thought that had been going through my head for several days.
“What stopped me from being born into a family of drug addicts, abuse, and any other sort of costly dysfunction?”
It is easy to look at those in the thick of their mess and believe that they ought to clean themselves up before they cry out for help.
But the only chance they have of leaving behind the mess is if someone will put aside their comfort and their cleaned-up way of life to enter into the mess with them and walk them into a whole new way of being.
Jesus came and saw us in a whole mess of sin and rather than waiting to see us clean ourselves up he allowed his heart to be moved with compassion, and his heart moved with compassion all the way to the cross - to his very own, torturous death for the sake of the sinful world.
Partiality is the fruit of believing that we have done something of worth to become who we are today.
But the Gospel tells a different story. The Gospel reminds us that had we been left on our own, we would have traveled a dark and demonic road to destruction.
“And such were some of you.” 1 Corinthians 6:11 so graciously reminds us.
And now on the other side of the cross, where grace and mercy have been lavished upon us, we have been called and sent to go and be the hands and feet of a God who put aside comfort, allowed compassion to move Him, and walked us to the newness of life in Him.
To consider: Is this the life I am living? If not, what do I need to change?
This is what my heart is pondering today - join me?
Your friend,
Amanda