Tag: equitable

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Peace Planters

Reading Time: 2 minutes

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness. ‭‭James‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

James, brother of Jesus and one of the early church leaders, writes to the churches about living a faith-filled and fruit-filled life. It is not just faith, it is obedient and visible works.

In just a few short thoughts, James captures the true essence of the word wisdom. Wisdom is evident in the behaviors of peacemakers and peace planters! James writes the attributes of wisdom, which was exemplified in his brother’s entire life. Jesus, the essence and personification of wisdom loved and lived peace.

Wisdom is first of all, pure (hagnos) holy and sacred.

▪️It is peaceful (eirénikos) whole and joined or tied together.
▪️ It is gentile (epieikés) equitable, yielding and reasonable.
▪️ It is yielding (eupeithes) compliant, pre-disposed to come to terms.
▪️ It is filled with mercy (eleos) pity and compassion and produces good fruit (karpos).
▪️ It is impartial (adiakritos) indistinguishable, without uncertainty about fairness.
▪️ And it is sincere (anupokritos) without hypocrisy, pretending, acting or faking truth.

What a list of behavioral attributes! This is not only what wisdom looks like, it is what a wise person acts like! Pure, peaceful, reasonable, compliant, merciful, compassionate, equitable and sincere behaviors. Think of what takes place in our country’s highest level of court justice. Think of what takes place in our country’s lowest level of street justice. Do we see wisdom? Do we see behaviors of peace?

James admonishes true followers of Jesus to not only think wisely, but behave wise. James inspires us to be peace planters, yielding beautiful fruits of wisdom! What am I sowing on Sundays as believers gather? How can I choose to seed peace rather than seethe hate at the insta or TikTok water cooler? How can the wisdom and peace of God be the antidote to the fast-spreading social viruses of anger, hate, disunity and violence? James is a big fan of behavior over simply belief!

Prayer

Dad,

Action is far louder than belief, behavior is far more effective for change than just my quiet thoughts on what I believe or how I feel. Your word, your wisdom, is actionable towards us. Your thoughts towards us are proven through your behavior towards us. Your love, mercy and peace have been demonstrated through Jesus! And my life can show proof of Jesus’ life and the eternal change in me through my behaviors of wisdom and peace. Thank you for rescuing me and calling me to be a peace planter!

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Rules or principles of fairness and equity

Reading Time: 3 minutes 
“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, “Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.” Proverbs‬ ‭3:27-28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This wisdom nugget isn’t just applicable to neighbors. This principle should be applied in all areas of leadership, business and especially when it comes to pastoring and leading a church. I purposely use the word “principle” which is a guideline for making decisions when leading people.

Oftentimes folks want a RULE. I get it, rules are certainly more solid, you know, “black or white,” clear and undeniable – right? Well, not so fast. Here’s my beef with rules. They appear to be simple and clear, but I promise they are not. For every rule created there are dozens of “loopholes” to get around it, actually nullifying the point of the rule in the first place. Let me just write one word here: LAWYERS. What do you they do? Find and take advantage of loopholes. Ok, but that’s just one problem with hard and factual rules. Here’s second one: rule management. The person, group or contract has to manage a mess of infractions for the rule-breakers. If you break a rule, there is a consequence for not obeying it. Someone has to dole out the punishment, er, consequence. And it has to be done quickly and fairly. There’s nothing worse than two people breaking the same rule, but one gets a pass, the other gets caught and has to pay up. And, because God MADE us creative, we’ve got thousands of ways around some rule that some sets up. Each one of those loops has to be caught, addressed and updated. It’s a endless cycle of systems to manage WRONGDOING. I hear you. Yes, there are rules or laws that must be stated and adhered to, I’m not advocating for anarchy. However, many times people run to rule-making, but they don’t want to live a life of rule-managing. I am so happy that God originally only gave humanity 10 rules/laws. Can I tell you that some very smart people called the Jews have even come up with ingenious ways to get around God’s big ten. They cranked up 613 laws to “explain” how to keep the original 10. That’s a 6030% increase!

Wow, that was a serious off-topic trail! Back to not withholding good from those who deserve it. The reason I sidetracked on rules and laws is that it tries to treat everyone “fair,” or equitable (so trendy right now). Fair? Equitable? Do we even understand how complicatedly difficult it is to do that to scale?

Proverbs frees us from this insanity of fairness and gives us the gift of spontaneous generosity. If and when it’s in your power to do good… guess what? Do it! And if it is not in your power or it over complicates the organization or the person receiving the good… guess again. DON’T do it. One of your kids may get a cookie, the other may not! Mind blown.

Andy Stanley has a quote I’ve been trying to live out in my leadership, “do for one what you wish you could do for everyone.” I know that wild statement will get a lot of blowback, but which is better or worse? Creating a rule-based system that goes in a policy and procedure book and has to be added to, changed constantly and managed OR some principles that guide me to making good decisions?

How will you lead? How will you take the advise of Solomon’s wisdom writers, which really is God inspired humans giving out God’s wisdom as well as his character and behaviors. The principle here is simple: when you can, do good to those who deserve it and do it immediately.

PRAYER:

Dad,
All I know is that I want to think and behave like you in as many situations as I can. You’re generous to help, I want to be generous to help. It’s that simple.