11 JUNE

GODLY WISDOM MAKES ONE REASONABLE

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason…”

(James 3:17)

Different versions of the Bible use different words and phrases to bring out the meaning of the above text – reasonable, open to reason, willing to yield, willing to listen, submissive, easy to be entreated, friendly.

We could just look at this story of “The Dead Church” to bring out the meaning of the text. The church members of the only church in the small town of Ebede had become very disillusioned by the greed and unrepentant ways of their pastor that many stopped coming to church. It took one full year before a new pastor was posted to their parish. The new pastor met only the cleaner and warden on his first Sunday. He spent the next six days making personal visits to each of the members, inviting them to come back to church, promising to make Jesus Lord and Master, all to no avail.

Yet another week and his entreaties yielded no result. None was open to reason. So the pastor placed a notice in the local newspapers, stating that since the church was dead, it was everyone’s duty to give it a decent Christian burial. The funeral would be held the following Sunday afternoon, the notice stated. Morbidly curious, a large crowd turned out for the “funeral.” In front of the pulpit, they saw a closed coffin, smothered with flowers.

After the pastor delivered the eulogy, he opened the coffin and invited the congregation to come forward and pay their final respects to their dead church. Filled with curiosity as to what would represent the corpse of a “dead church”, all the people lined up to look into the coffin. Each “mourner” peeped into the coffin then quickly turned away with a guilty, sheepish look. In the coffin, tilted at the correct angle, was a large mirror!

Godly wisdom makes us reasonable and able to look at things from others’ perspectives and not only ours.

ACTION:  Be willing to listen and consider other perspectives.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be reasonable in all things, especially concerning the Kingdom.