Hebrews 13:2: Treat People As Permanent Features Of My New Life

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. - Hebrews 13:2

It is easy to write off (or tell off) people on the road. After all, you may never see them again. You don't know them and they don't know you. Cashiers, attendants, ushers, ticket takers, pedestrians, fellow elevator travelers--so many people flow past us, their roles and our interactions prescribed by job, geography, time and cultural convention. The way we treat these people--they are people, not just roles or functions--shows what we think of God.

This is obvious in the way we treat strangers. The Bible reminds us that the "stranger" can be the messenger of God. Strangers might be angels (Heb. 13:2), or Jesus himself (Luke 24:13ff) or a fellow traveler. Jesus said, "...I was a stranger and you invited me in...whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." (Matt. 25:35)

How does this work in real life? My friend and colleague, Kevin Davis, taught me one way in my job: "Treat the people with whom I interact as permanent features of my new life."[1] We both travel a lot for work, and there are tons of interactions with customers, potential customers, overseas co-workers, hotel staff and restaurant workers. We may see them again in a few months, or maybe never again.

But Kevin uses each visit as a chance to start a relationship or build on one. "...[T]reat everyone as a permanent friend. Learn as much about them as possible. Keep a little spot in your heart just for them. Your heart will grow to make room for all of them," he said. Why? "At one point I realized that every person can teach me something new if I let them."

So, make the effort to reserve space--to learn, to care. It can be frustrating, because I want to, but it is not my natural tendency. I am too often friendly, but not interested in being a friend.

Lord, prompt me to build relationships with those passing through until it is my habit and then my character; not to gain me anything except what you would teach me through them.

[1]More about this by Kevin at The Day (https://medium.com/happy-trails-yall/the-day-c232dc59b540), retrieved on April 30, 2017.

Jeremiah 10:23-24: Lord, Change Me Gently

I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. - Jeremiah 10:23-24 (NLT)

Since I was a younger man, I have remembered one request I that made to God: Lord, change me gently; don't break me. I wondered whether this was the coward's path to spiritual transformation; or a purgatory without epiphanies; or what God had intended when he set up the whole sanctification business in the first place for sinners like us.

Now I see that Jeremiah was wondering the same thing. He wants correction, but he wants to survive the process. The gentleness he refers to isn't ignoring or diminishing the core character issues, but emphasizes God's actions towards his children, as opposed to those who prey upon his children (see verses 25-26)[1] As the traditional Jewish definition of justice has it, "To each person what he deserves; to each one what is appropriate."[2]

Nearly 30 years later, I can say that I am both happy and frustrated by my prayer. Many of the same issues are still there. They don't go away; I combat them daily. But many are gone, replaced by the fruit of God's spirit. Would I change my prayer? I don't think so. I'm too afraid to try it the other way, but I'm also too afraid to stay the way I am. Thank God that he plans my course.

The one who calls, calls as to his son. I trust in that.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:14

[1] The phrase "please be gentle" is the NLT's way of dealing with the interpretive question of the difference between "justice" that Jeremiah wants for himself (cf. "in justice", ESV, NASB) and the "anger" he wants for his enemies. "Gentle" tries to express this contrast in terms of control. Where as "gentleness" is "strength under control", the nations receive the "pouring out of wrath" in the following verses. But I think that the NIV's rendering "in due measure" captures the sense better. In this sense, Jeremiah is saying, in effect, my sins deserve fair punishment (as someone who loves God, but has failed him). This is in contrast with the nations (who do not know God and devour Israel), who deserve so much more.
[2] As cited in Joy At Work, Dennis W Bakke (2005)

Jeremiah 7:24: My Retrograde Heart

But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. - Jeremiah 7:24

One of the dangers to the calling of any follower of Jesus is the retrograde heart. My heart tends to fall back and not fall forward. My heart is (as the dictionary says) "tending toward or resulting in a worse or previous state." That influence--my heart's influence--just puts me in a spiritual spin cycle.

Rich Mullins captured it well in his song, The Maker of Noses, when he said:

And everyone I know wants to go there too
But when I ask them how to do it they seem so confused
Do I turn to the left?
Do I turn to the right?
When I turn to the world they gave me this advice 

They said boy you just follow your heart,
But my heart just led me into my chest
They said follow your nose
But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head
And they said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions
But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams He's the one I have chosen
And I will follow Him

At the same time, the Spirit is renewing us day by day (2 Cor. 4:14), fulfilling God's promise that our heart of stone would be displaced by a heart of flesh (Eze. 34:36). So the spiritual discipline of solitude is designed to remove distractions so that we can hear the quiet voice of God that we are so unaccustomed to hearing. For me this most readily happens on long business flights or long drives with the radio turned off.

Now, the cynical among us might dismiss this searching for a "still, small voice" as wish fulfillment or self-talk, not really the voice of God. While I believe that God can and does speak, that skeptical voice does raise a good point: how do we know the difference? Frankly, "listening to my heart" and "listening to the Spirit of God" can sound the same. To make it worse: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer. 17:19) Our unchanged heart masquerades as the voice of God!

I have been there, thinking I was hearing God when, in fact, I was listening to a script prepared by heart that sounded holy and godly, but in fact was false. I wish I could hear it clearly, like Peter in the early church. He is walking to the temple and he hears a poor and crippled man asking him for money, stops, makes a brief speech and then heals the man (Acts 3). So here is the question that bothers me: How did he know? How did he know to stop that time and heal that man? I mean, he didn't stop for every one of the beggars or sick. How did he know that when he reached out his hand to pull the man to his feet that he would be able to stand that time? Who told Peter? God, obviously. But that require a level of intimacy with God and a level of awareness of God's voice that I don't have. I wish I did, but I don't.

So I have to rely on some guidelines I've developed, to help me keep out of trouble. They are not gospel, they are just guidelines based on the Bible, my experience with myself and observations from others who I trust.

1. Whether something is difficult or easy is not an indicator as to whether it should be done or not.
2. My heart is more concerned about the way something looks that what it really is. Personal descent is sometimes the path of wisdom.
3. If my thoughts center around a person, rather than the goal, I'm probably not on the right track.
4. I should expect that God will pull me in directions that I wouldn't normally consider, because He is God and I am not. Some rebukes are painful, others are refreshing. All can be learned from.
5. I don't like confrontation, so I have to watch my heart most carefully when I might anger or disappoint someone by my decisions.

Proverbs 2:11-15: A Little Bit Shady

Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from [those] whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways. - Prov. 2:11-12a, 15

When I was attending a recent seminar put on by Control System Cyber Security Association International (CS2AI), the presenter, Rahner James, described the type of professional who would excel in the IT security industry as having to be "a little bit shady." This was an updated take on the adage "it takes a thief to catch a thief", presuming that there was a different approach to securing your IT infrastructure if you understood how a hacker might look at it. Your web services don't need to defend against people who use it the way it was intended. Rather, once a system is defined, the hacker finds the cracks in the interfaces and the weaknesses in the safeguards, skirting around the boundaries to gain access. Fair people tend to think others will treat them fairly, while deceitful people assume everyone is trying to cheat them.

One of the attendees of the seminar objected to this requirement. He didn't want to think his moral compass had to be compromised in order to do his job well. I sympathized with him, because I have seen security blindness and I could also see how a glimpse into the dark side might give us insight into the means and motives of attack.

Then James gave an analogy that helped me understand. Hackers, he claimed, divided the world into two categories: sheep and wolves. They are the wolves and IT is the fence protecting the sheep. By challenging the IT security, they are proving themselves--seeing how good and talented they really are. If they win, they are rewarded with financial gain or notoriety. If they lose, they try again, or they get caught. No risk, no reward.

But IT security people see the world in three categories: sheep, wolves and sheep dogs. Sheep dogs have similar genetic makeup and similar instincts and similar tools with wolves, but they win when the sheep are safe and the lose when the sheep go down.

Jesus expressed his own role in slightly different terms:

I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. - John 10:7b-10

Maybe, being "a little bit shady" means remembering the way we are all inclined to be without God. Jesus warned his disciples "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves" (Matt. 10:16) We look for the angle. We try to get around rules. We look for loopholes. We take advantage of the goodwill of helpful people. People in security have to have a determination to protect that is as strong as the ambition to penetrate.

What is it like to understand the full extent of evil (Genesis 2), but not be evil yourself? I don't know, but I want to move forward with the right heart motivations.

What is it like to be a good God, see the full extent of deception in the hearts of men and women, and still love those who are a little bit (or a lot) shady? I don't know, but I am sure glad he does.