James 3:13-16
Do you want to be counted wise, to build a reputation for wisdom? Here’s what you do: Live well, live wisely, live humbly. It’s the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Mean-spirited ambition isn’t wisdom. Boasting that you are wise isn’t wisdom. Twisting the truth to make yourselves sound wise isn’t wisdom. It’s the furthest thing from wisdom—it’s animal cunning, devilish conniving. Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats.
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
One of our niece’s high school classmates is a pediatrician at a hospital in Little Rock, where she also teaches at a university hospital. She is also a newlywed whose husband was diagnosed this summer with a very serious form of brain cancer – a highly aggressive malignancy known as glioblastoma. Through surgery, radiation and chemo treatments, this young woman has kept family and friends updated via a CaringBridge journal. In recent posts, she has noted that she doesn’t know how people without her knowledge and expertise navigate the unbelievable maze of medical jargon, paperwork, diagnoses, and treatment directives.
While this ordeal is incredibly heartbreaking, this woman also notes that she has become a better physician as a result of her experience. Many of us have been in a situation where medical staff threw big words, acronyms, numbers and data at us in rapid-fire succession – assuming we understood what they were telling us… while we wondered, “What in the world does this all mean?” – or our mind raced in a thousand other directions. Our niece’s friend writes …”I have become a more compassionate doctor for my families that turn up in the ED (Emergency Department) because they just didn't know what else to do. And while I can rarely solve their problem, I can sit and let them vent about the mess that for-profit medicine has created.”
We can’t merely point to the medical community as the only example of this, because we all act this way, to some degree. We set ourselves up on a pedestal and offer our supreme wisdom to others… often with a hefty dose of condescension or pride in our own capabilities. We lord it over others who really only needed to vent or – as this physician put it – just didn’t know what else to do. We operate in arrogance… that we are better at our job, our sport, parenting our children, being a good friend – and worst of all, being a Christian. By operating in mean-spirited ambition or superiority, we are anything but wise.
Each one of us needs to take a good look at our own life and how we act toward others. Ask yourself, “Am I operating in humility and wisdom… or arrogance and selfish ambition? Am I more concerned with how I appear and stroking my own ego… or sharing my God-given blessings with others? Do others come to me because they know I will offer humble, non-judgmental wisdom and comfort… or am I avoided because of my know-it-all attitude and hypercriticism?”
Won’t you ask God today to grant you true wisdom… and a spirit of honesty, generosity, and humility – as you interact with others? Ask God to make you a person others actually want to be around. Be the humble Christian witness who shares the love of Christ without cramming your vast Bible knowledge or “direct line” arrogance down the throats of others. Build a reputation as someone who lives well, wisely, and humbly. And while you are at it… please pray for this young woman and her husband – and their two young sons – who continue to fight “the beast,” as she describes glioblastoma.
As the adage goes…“People don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” What do others know about you?
©2012 Debbie Robus
No comments:
Post a Comment