If I were the right color and rich and famous would you honor me with the best seats and best food? If I were good looking and driving a new car would you listen to my words and thoughts with great interest?
In America we honor the rich and successful. We have a definition of success that sees the big house, new cars, fine clothes and successful career as the hallmark of greatness.
However, in that lowly homeless man there could exists more wisdom than all the Fortune 500 Corporations.
The Bible talks of such. Listen to these words.
James 2:1-9New International Version (NIV)
Favoritism Forbidden
2 "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[a] you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers."
I have sit in big conference rooms at the top floors of major Banks in Jonesboro and listened to the rich and influential. I have traveled to large cities in America and been in seminars of major Universities. I have listened to the rich and powerful and educated. I have learned from them, yes. However, I have also shaken hands with the poor and lowly of life who had little. I must say in all of my experiences it has been that person of poverty and lowliness of life that has taught me more than any. My grandfather never had a lot. He worked as a sharecropper farmer his whole life. But he taught me volumes. My own father has never been a rich man but oh how he has taught me. By and large the rich and powerful I have known have taught me more about what not to be rather than what to be.
In the church, I am sad to report that in most cases I have seen the same thing that I saw in the world. The wealthy and powerful are esteemed. Not so much for their "great wisdom" but for what they have and who they are. That man siting in the pew driving an old truck and wearing clothes not so fancy and new is often ignored. Wisdom is lost.
I remember on an occasion visiting with a man with learning issues and who was poor in the eyes of men. He was wise in many ways and I hung on his every word. Another man came up to me to rudely interrupt me. This man had money and influence. I continued my conversation with the man I was talking with and when finished I turned to the man of "influence". He was upset that I "wasted my time" as he would say, with this other man, when he had things to discuss with me. I told him that the man he was referring to was a creation of God and loved by God just as much as he is loved. I shamed him for his prejudiced.
All across America and in the church there is great wisdom waiting to be invited to the table of influence. Many of these forgotten souls have more to offer than all the Ph.D degrees and big bank accounts combined.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a great man. He wrote several books. He came out of the death camps of Stalin of Russia. Solzhenitsyn was a genius in many ways. He escaped to the United States and was hailed as a great man. He spoke to a packed house at Harvard. He spoke of the wisdom of the ordinary men and women of America. He said you will find more wisdom there then all the great centers of learning. It was not the message the Harvard crowd wanted to hear. He spoke of the solutions to our national problems and that such could be found in the heartland of America among the average men and women, if America would listen. Interesting.
So often the wealthy and elite of this earth become so full of themselves that they become blind to real wisdom and real understanding. Money and worldly fame and education can often blind the minds of men and women. Today, in America in government and great seats of power and fame sits some of the most ignorant men and women to be found anywhere. I am not saying this is always the case. But, I am saying that money and vanity often blind people and they become deceived and never realize such.
Often as one gets older others discount them and discard their voice. We often fail to honor the aged among us. They have a world of wisdom to offer and yet we turn a deaf ear.
Remember when Jesus walked the earth the poor and forgotten heard him gladly, and the rich and powerful showed themselves to be truly ignorant in that they turned against the blessed Lord (with few exceptions).
I have noticed in the past of my life that when some thought I had money they wanted to be with me. If they thought I had nothing, they move on. If they thought I was in a prestigious position, they wanted to be with me or listen to me. If not, they have no time for me. So, the drum beat continues onward. Ah, such is life.
Something to think about!
*Allen Ashlock, 2014
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