Press Pause

Is it possible to keep oneself unstained by the world?

Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-they will be blessed in their doing. If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. - James 1:17-27

James reminds us that we have been given a great gift form God, each of us.  We are instruments of His grace and love.

Every good thing that we do, we do because of God's presence in us.  He is our creator and we are made in His image, so we have the power to do good.

But many of us forget about the doing part.  We try to be good, and remain or strive to be unstained by the world, unaffected by the evil around us, but that is where it ends.

We walk away without doing anything.

What is it we should be doing?

First we need to be slow to speak.  When we hear something that angers us or disturbs us, the first reaction is to defend our position or state our case.  Why?  Is it a battle we must win?

If we remind ourselves that we are empowered by God to do good, we don't need to win.  We need to look for a way to act like God.

Second we need to cool our heels, be slow to anger.  When people say or do things that get us riled up, our anger will not improve the situation.  It just keeps us from thinking clearly.  So, we need to press pause.

Finally, we should look for things we can do to help others.

That may keep us so busy we don't have time to get angry.

More to come...