Day 075: Bias

"But from those who seemed to be something - whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man - for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me."  Galatians 2:6

We need to go around remembering this.

Favoritism is a dangerous thing that has plagued humanity for quite a long time.  Holding onto just one person while disregarding everybody else who is much better qualified is something that can be harmful for a business, a class, a church, or a project.  Favoritism blinds us.

God, on the other hand, is not blind.  God sees all that we are worth and puts us to in places where we can shine the best.  God provides us with the opportunities to grow and to shine in ways that we couldn't ever have imagined.  On top of that, God can see through the acts that we each put on in order to deceive all of those around us.  God is the one with the sharp eye and the discerning ways to read past the papers that are framed and hanging on an office wall.  God can examine us entirely.

We allow for our own biases to rule over our lives.  But that adds nothing to our lives.  When we start deceiving ourselves about people that we like just because they went to a certain school, speak a certain way, or even have a certain skin color, we end up hurting ourselves.  Rather than making our lives better, we start to degenerate, undoing all the work that we had done to begin with.

What's a way to eliminate this issue?  How about turning to God?  When we make ourselves the boss, we don't know when to stop picking and choosing what we want.  We have gotten so used to allowing our biases to rule over us that we can't even make good decisions.  However, with prayer and meditation, with a constant communication with God, we can be more discerning.  When we allow for God to rule over us, God will put God's master plan into action.  We will discover greater things when we work together with what God gives us.

This Lent, meditate on what God has in store for you.  What issues are pressing you right now?  What kinds of goals do you have?  What are the God-given gifts that you have that you can use to get to your goals?  Pray and communicate with God.  God will show you the best way to live your life, and you won't have to worry about any biases putting you at a disadvantage. 

Day 031: Fulfillment

"The lips of righteous men understand lofty things, but men without discernment die in want." Proverbs 10:22

This proverb seems to be straightforward, but I end up asking, "Why would somebody want to go without discernment, then?"  We already have the facts that righteousness leaves us without want, but the proverb states that a lack of discernment is something that is real and possible.

Spiritual discernment is something that we all need to be aware about, because it can guide us in life.  I feel that spiritual discernment comes from a willingness to allow for the Holy Spirit to work in us and guide us in our lives.  But how do we make this work for us?

The answer comes from the first part, for the righteous understand lofty, high things.  It means that we need to be preparing our minds to start building up our understanding and knowledge.  It means that we need to devote ourselves more to the Holy Spirit.  And, of course, we are in a time when we have so many resources available to us, the chief of which is our bible.

I love the book of Proverbs because it makes me think about things.  Starting in Chapter 10, each verse brings me to think about an entirely new concept.  The catch, though, is to allow the proverb to live in me and through me.  I need to let the Holy Spirit guide me by the means of the words that I read.

When we prepare ourselves with reading, praying, meditating, and thinking, we can begin to comprehend the lofty things, the things that exist way past us.  We can start to understand the love of God, or the sacrifice of Jesus.  That preparation also allows us to invite the Holy Spirit to become a major driver of our lives.  And, when we let the Holy Spirit take control, we will be so fulfilled that we will not want anything else.

 

Day 029: Discerning Speech

"Righteous lips cover hatred, but those who bring forth abuse are very lacking in discernment." Proverbs 10:19

Probably one of the most talked about images or issues in the entire bible is the mouth.  We use it to speak and communicate in a way that most people who speak our same language can understand.  But our words, though on the surface they are just utterances of sound, can bring forth different meanings.  Some of the meanings are mundane, like, "I'm going to the store," or, "The dog barked."  Some of the meanings are provocative, some in the good way, and others in the bad way.

In my personal reading of this proverb from the Septuagint, I understand the second half as reading, "but those who bring forth abuse are senseless" or "are without direction".  Taking all of these for the interpretation of one word, though, can help me understand what is going on in the proverb.

Hate is something that is so easy for us to do, for we can point the finger so quickly when something doesn't go our way.  Think about how easily children say the phrase, "I hate ...".  When we grow up, we become conditioned so that we either say that phrase in a hyperbolic way, or we reserve the phrase for very choice occasions, when we truly have hatred towards something or someone (or, we want to think of it as being in that way).

Hatred separates us from those we hate.  We isolate ourselves by saying that we hate others.  And, when we start saying that we hate every single thing around us, we start to put ourselves into a little box, where we lack direction, where we can't accomplish anything.  When we hate someone, sometimes we just like to go to our little corner and burn with anger against that one person.  We waste our time we could be using to learn or to communicate to think about how much we hate that person.

So what does it mean, then, to cover hatred?  I like to think that this proverb is another way of saying, "think before you speak."  When we can take some time to think about what we are going to say, about what we hate, we can start to consider not only the consequences of our accusations, but also the other qualities in that person.  We can also start to make it a moment to learn more about our sincerest beliefs and about why they exclude that person.  Why does that guy want the room to be red while I cannot have it any other color than blue?  Why does that woman say that there is no church without the liturgy while I enjoy an altar call instead?

The moments where we are tempted by hatred are ones where God is trying to speak to us.  These are challenges of our own faith.  God is trying to help us understand how to be better missionaries, so that we can continue to spread the gospel, both abroad and in our own hearts.  When we have the opportunity to discern whether to bless or to condemn, we have the opportunity to hear God speak to us in a difficult situation.