Jesus said we’re to treat all people equally, but that’s easier said than done

I assume you have your place all decorated for the season,” she stated. I looked at the other woman with a sense of incredulity. She doesn’t know me-the real me. If she did, she would know the truth. Decorate? Me? I’m lucky if I get time to phone my family back east on Christmas Day after they wake me from the coma induced by the “traditional” Salvation Army activities in December.
So why did this person think that I had it all together? Well, let’s see … I’m executive director of a multi-faceted social ministry; I co-pastor a church congregation with my husband, preaching each Sunday and playing in the worship team; I’m on boards for different agencies in the community and the region; I started up a retail yarn shop (for purely altruistic reasons, I assure you); and there are lots of other things that I’m involved with. With five kids, two young boys still at home, six grandchildren and looking after my mother for the last nine years, I’ve got my hands full. After all that, anyone who thinks that I still have time to decorate my house at Christmas or any other time of the year must be insane.

Whatever idea this nice woman had about me, she got it wrong. She made an assumption that was simply not true. I would like to have my house decorated, cookies baked, be able to eat properly and exercise and have all the gifts wrapped and under the tree before midnight on Christmas Eve. But that wouldn’t be me. If I did that, I wouldn’t have time for all the other interesting things I do-like this column.

Like this woman, many of us often look at other people and make assumptions or judgments about them. We see what someone looks like or hear something about a particular person. Then we decide if we’re going to like them or not, or whether we’ll give them a job or be their friend, based on what we think we know.

The Bible cautions us in this. Jesus said, “The last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). In other words, we shouldn’t use the standards of this world to measure a person’s worth or abilities. We’re not to favour the rich. We’re to treat all people equally-regardless of who they are, what they’re wearing, how they smell, if they have a different philosophy of life, what gender they are, whether or not they’re married or even if we don’t really like them.

This is hard. In our society, we tend to promote the ones who are bright, perky, good-looking, thin, white, straight and-in our organization-male. I was watching ABC’s 20/20 one Friday night and they had a segment on how a person’s good looks helped them get ahead. They had hidden cameras and, when presented with the evidence, the people interviewed all had to admit that a person’s looks actually played a part in their decision making. According to a similar report on CNN, “attractive students get more attention and higher evaluations from their teachers, good-looking patients get more personalized care from their doctors and handsome criminals receive lighter sentences than less attractive convicts.”

I have to wonder if I unconsciously put up a “front” when I meet people. Did this stop my acquaintance from seeing the real me?

I also have to look at how I think of other people. Perhaps I’m unfair sometimes in my assumptions about them. After all, I can’t read their thoughts, can I? I can’t feel what they feel.

Look at the people with whom you live, go to work or go to school. What do you think of them? Have you made judgments about them? Have you assumed things about them? Let the love of this holiday season turn your hearts to those people. Try to get to know them-the real person behind the façade that we all wear. Make a new friend, and have a Merry Christmas!

by Major Kathie Chiu
Corps Officer and Executive Director of The Caring Place Ministries, Mountain View Community Church, Maple Ridge, B.C.

Reprinted from Salvationist, December 2007