23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
James 1:23,24 ESV
One of my recent post focused on Israel's first king, Saul. One aspect of his life that stood out was Saul's willingness to allow man's opinion to trump God's command. Those around him were more important to him than God. Having read, reread, and written about this destructive behavior pattern in his life, one would think I would be on guard against such a damaging mindset. Not so. I am James' guy in the mirror.
Yesterday I had to visit the DMV to renew a license on a vehicle. Since the holiday weekend was coming up, several of the offices were closed the next day, so I had to make it to one of the locations before closing time. I rolled into the parking lot of a local DMV at 4:59, one minute before closing time, rushed to the door, and made it through the door with another last-minute patron. When I entered the door, the lady behind the counter fifteen feet away announced, "Sir, we close at five."
I checked my cell phone and saw the time was just then five o'clock so I responded, "Okay."
"I won't be able to serve you since you came in after we closed at 5:00."
"It is just now five o'clock."
"Sir, we had the door locked. We were closed."
"How could I have gotten if the door was locked?"
Back and forth for perhaps 30 seconds. The other people in line were witness to this frustrated exchange. When I realized that I was not going to get the plates renewed, I headed for the door, fuming. As the door was closing behind me, I heard a sarcastic, "Have a nice day" from the DMV counter. Unfortunately the door was still open which allowed me to stick my head back inside the door and say, "That remark was unnecessary" to the DMV employee. (Keep in mind, this is at a distance of fifteen feet of more which allowed all others in the room to be privy to my immature retort.)
Within seconds, I realized how foolish and embarrassing my actions were. The arguing and last-minute retort were not appropriate for an adult, Christian or not. I had acted like a child that did not get their way. "Waaaaaa!"
My worry was that perhaps someone already in line knew me either personally or professionally. What would they think? What if it was a parent of a child at my school were in line and recognized me? Maybe another principal. Would they talk to others about my actions? I might have tarnished my reputation.
When I recounted the episode later that evening to a friend at church and about my subsequent worries of the possible reputation fallout, he remarked, "Or what if they knew you were a Christian." Uh-oh!
During all my time of worry after the event, I had focused on me, my, and mine. Not once had I considered the possible damage I may have done to God's reputation. His name might have been tarnished by my actions, but I had only considered man's opinion toward me. How Saulian of me.
Even after all the time spent reading and writing about Saul, I had fallen victim to the same mind set of elevating man over God. I wonder how much different my actions would be if I were to make God's opinion of my thoughts, words, and actions more important than the opinions of family members, friends, coworkers, and strangers. "Will this please God" as opposed to "I wonder what __________ will think about _________."
/The Bible is our instruction manual for life. It contains what we need to navigate through our days on this planet. Both explicit and implicit lessons are contained within. However, its benefits are not recognized unless we put its words into action.
June 14 blog entry
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