WATER OF LIFE

[ A Warning against Prejudice ] My dear brothers and sisters, how can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? James 2:1

So what is the difference between earning the favor of your boss and your boss showing favoritism? Favor is friendly approval, kind regard, and goodwill. Favoritism is the practice of giving unfair preferential treatment to one person or group at the expense of another. We should seek the favor of our boss but not favoritism. The key here is goodwill: friendly, helpful, or cooperative feelings or attitude, a willing effort, cheerful consent, approval and support. (Goodwill is also easier to build out of a good reputation.)

Loyalty is a strong value in group centered cultures like in Hawaii. Part of that loyalty is locals giving preference to other locals. Favoritism can be found in the workplace too. There can be a pyramid-like structure or hierarchy of favor with those who are in favor receiving the best shifts, shorter shifts, best locations, less work, and getting to leave work early or take time off, and getting the inside information. (The same thing can even happen in the church with the flow of information and access to the pastor.)

It’s kind of ironic because God showed me this ‘pyramid’ concept at work when I was watching TOY Story 3 at the movie theatre with the kids from the youth center. In the movie, THE NEW TOYS GET PUT IN THE TODDLER AREA OF THE CHILD DAYCARE BECAUSE THE TODDLERS ABUSE THE TOYS THE WORST> Its the same in the youth center, the new people and the people out of favor get put in the shifts, areas, and assignments which are the most stressful. The solution they found in the toy story movie was to get rid of the pyramid of favoritism and work as a team where everyone shared the load.

This solution resonates with my old inequality philosophy, but God showed me scriptures on favoritism because favoritism is a sin. According to the world favoritism is also wrong and that’s why there are rules against it in the workplace. But we all know that what is practiced and what is preached is often very different.

Of course I’m just as guilty as the next guy. My classroom can be a microcosm of it all. When I’m at work with my kids I might let them stay on the swings or in the computer lab a little longer than the other kids or I might show favor to kids who behave better. And how is that any different than the local culture of loyalty? Its not. Aren’t the tests and trials God puts in my life to show me something in myself too? I have to be faithful in the small things, when no one is watching, and God will give me and trust me with bigger things. Finally, Jame’s point with the above scripture is that we are love each other especially with grace and mercy.

I don’t know where I picked my ‘it’s got to be fair’ mentality. It might be part of my legalistic mentality or remnants of my old idealist/inequality philosophy which I blogged about here: Self-sufficiency

I look around me at work and I can see people who get away with doing little and I resent that. And I see others who receive favor because their better at playing politics than I am.

But it’s true that God himself isn’t fair. He decides who he will show favor to through His mercy and grace. Grace is unmerited favor and there is nothing—no matter of works—we can do to earn it.

God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen. Romans 9:18

He isn’t fair in the our assignments or our lots in life. The prophet Jonah didn’t think it was fair and resented the fact that God was showing his mercy to the wicked Assyrians. Jonah refused his assignment to preach to the Assyrians so God stuck him inside a whale until he was ready to accept his assignment. Another example is when God told the prophet Jeremiah he would never marry.

Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? Romans 9:21-22

I can get burned out and frustrated just like Jeremiah and want to quit and walk away from it all:

Lord, you always give me justice
when I bring a case before you.
So let me bring you this complaint:
Why are the wicked so prosperous?
Why are evil people so happy?
You have planted them,
and they have taken root and prospered.
Your name is on their lips,
but you are far from their hearts.
But as for me, Lord, you know my heart.
You see me and test my thoughts.
Drag these people away like sheep to be butchered!
Set them aside to be slaughtered!

How long must this land mourn?
Even the grass in the fields has withered.
The wild animals and birds have disappeared
because of the evil in the land.
For the people have said,
“The Lord doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”

The Lord’s Reply to Jeremiah

“If racing against mere men makes you tired,
how will you race against horses?
If you stumble and fall on open ground,
what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?
Even your brothers, members of your own family,
have turned against you.
They plot and raise complaints against you.
Do not trust them,
no matter how pleasantly they speak.

Jeremiah 12:1-6

“Life was extremely difficult for Jeremiah despite his love for and obedience to God. When he called God for relief, God’s reply in effect was, “If think this is bad, how are going to cope when it gets really tough?” God’s answers to prayer are not always nice and easy to handle. Any Christian who has experienced war, bereavement, or a serious illness knows this. We are to be committed to God even when the going gets tough and when our prayers for relief are not immediately answered.” —Life Application Study Bible

Jeremiah is my favorite prophet in the Old Testament and Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, is my favorite apostle in the New Testament. Jeremiah was bruised and beaten up and Paul was stoned and whipped and they both ended up in jail. Jeremiah’s assignment ends in a very different way from Paul’s. Jeremiah survived the invasion of the Babylonians and was freed from jail, whereas the rest of the Israelites starved to death, or were killed, or taken into captivity. God was faithful to rescue Jeremiah from his enemies but Paul is a different story.

It’s not in the Bible but tradition states that Paul and many of the original twelve disciples died a martyrs death. Jesus died a martyrs death and if we are followers of Christ (like Paul and the disciples) He commands us to take up our cross and follow Him. Personally, I like Jeremiah’s ending much better than Paul’s but God is the maker of all things and decides what purpose we will serve in glorifying Him. Also, when we face trails and hardships these are the times we can feel closest to Jesus.

We can have a righteous anger at injustice and immoral conduct and speak out against it through constructive criticism or a word of warning but if the situation still goes on it may cause us to get into a fleshly (unspiritual, unholy, selfish) anger and end up like Moses when he slammed his staff against the rock out of frustration over the Israelite’s behavior. Pastor Steve Mays points out that this wasn’t okay because Moses was mad at the people but God wasn’t. Moses had put up with a lot of bad behavior for a long time but that still wasn’t an excuse to disobey and dishonor God.

Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you had not enough faith in me to keep my name holy before the children of Israel, you will not take this people into the land which I have given them.
Numbers 20:12

It was a pretty big punishment for slipping into a fleshly anger but Moses was leader over all the Israelites so the punishment fit the misuse of position. He also dishonored God in the face of all the people by taking the credit for the miracle: “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” (Numbers 20:10). In expressing our anger we have be careful not to slip into self-power (instead of relying on the Holy Spirits power working through us). Anger is a powerful emotion and it can also bring out pride, and self-confidence, which leads to a lack of acknowledgment for what God has done in our lives. This is again what Paul was warning about when he said to be angry but not sin.

Just before I opened my heart to the Lord I was trying to write a book on inequality. For many years I HAD DEVELOPED MY OWN PHILOSOPHY THAT MY WIFE EVENTUALLY COINED AS Brentopia. My philosophy had some anti-capitalist, social justice, and socialist similarities but my main thrust was to value other personality types and cultures. I WAS PASSIONATE THAT WE SHOULD VALUE OTHER CULTURE TYPES INSTEAD OF FORCING THEM TO CONFORM TO A WESTERN CULTURAL BEHAVIORS, VALUES, AND CAPITALIST SYSTEMS. My belief was that if we valued all personality types (through equal opportunities, rewards, etc.) and cultures (by preserving the richness of their culture through protection from capitalist exploitation) that the result would not only be a better world but an incredible synergy. Many of my blog entries before July of 2007 (when I rededicated my life to Christ) reflect my self-made philosophy. Here are a couple examples:
Type, culture and inequality.
Inequality Matters.

NOT ONLY HAD I CREATED MY OWN GRAND PHILOSOPHY BUT I had also self-defined my relationship with God. I prayed to God but didn’t believe in the church (and organized religion) and I thought that possibly we were all praying to the same god (hindus, muslims, buddhists, etc.), and that god was just differently expressed in other cultures and parts of the world. (By the way, I’m not into self-flagellation. Part of being transformed into the image of Christ is surrendering those parts of ourselves that He shows us we no longer need and I want share with others what I’m learning along the way.)

My equality concept was really the deception of self-sufficiency. It’s idea that man can create a better society without God or his help. Basically the Tower of BABEL ALL OVER AGAIN. The Book of Revelations also tells of a future time where man will once again attempt this. The European Union is an example of this. It seems great, politically and economically, but is it any coincidence that Europeans are falling away from Christianity, so much so, that now missionaries are being sent to Europe—and ironically some of them are coming from countries that Europeans had sent missionaries to years ago. God stopped the Tower of Babel by making all the people speak different languages. It’s interesting to note that cross-cultural communication (also part of the social sciences) is an effort to bridge the very differences that God had put in place to keep man from finishing the Tower of Babel.

Even if Babylon reaches the sky and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 51:53

In some ways Japan is also like that ideal society. It’s extremely safe and the policemen don’t wear guns. The gap between the rich and the poor is much smaller than the US. Unemployment for many years has been low. Neil Verwey, a missionary in Japan for 50 years, said that ever since consumerism took hold of the culture the numbers turning to Christ decreased. There are less than two percent Christians in Japan. Pastor Paul Suzuki, of Life Chapel (in Japan), said it’s hard to keep your faith in Japan—and that’s not surprising seeing how the Japanese have built for themselves a safe, somewhat egalitarian, comfortable, consumer-satisfying society. But I’ve also seen with my own eyes that in this country there is river of sexual immorality that runs deep and that many families are hollow structures.

The ultimate outcome of the seeds of self-sufficiency is a turning away from God (Europe) or not turning to God (Japan). God’s ultimate plan (according the Bible and the Book of Revelations) isn’t to save the earth or even to perfect human society. GOD’S PURPOSE IS THAT WE ARE TO BE IN A DEPENDENT RELATIONSHIP WITH Him. ANYTHING CONTRARY TO THIS IS THE DECEPTIVE WORKS OF THE ENEMY AND THE ANTI-CHRIST (Revelations).

(Side-note: I’m not yelling with my capitalized text. That’s just the way it comes out of my text editor when I download it to my computer and I believe there is something providential about that.)