fat sheep

I don't really have a problem with racism or sexism or ageism. I'm sure there are some inadvertent attitudes or behaviors that might offend some, but as a rule I enjoy a lot of diversity at work, at church, and in society.

There is something I struggle with, though, and that's poorism. I know that isn't a word, but it should be, because I need something that captures the struggle I have in being respectful and loving to certain folks.

You see, from my position of advantage and security I can question the character of people who don't have as much as I do. I assume they aren't trying very hard. I think I have more because I'm a better person.

This morning, God challenged me to see that he hates that attitude from people like me. God said, through the prophet Ezekiel, "See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another." (Ezekiel 34:20-21)

My pride in myself and disdain for the less fortunate make me a fat sheep. For one thing, I don't see all the things that conspire against poor people, the difficulty in getting good nourishment, the fight to fund a good education, the silent judgment that makes it hard for them to get good jobs. I interview a lot of people every year, and form opinions based on my first impression of how an applicant is dressed, and how he or she talks. What if that threadbare pair of jeans is the best he owns? What if she uses simple language because she quit high school to support her mom?

To make it worse, what about all the things I do that just pile on? I don't readily give that job, not if there's someone with a better vocabulary and wardrobe available. And maybe I don't always conceal my opinion about taking help from the government. Likely my sense of superiority shows through.

In the meantime, I continue to live my fat life with my fat income, eating and wearing and owning whatever strikes my fancy, discarding things before they are used up, wasting what they long to have. In all these ways I shoulder and butt my weaker neighbors away from the trough.

God calls me instead to protect and nurture people who have less than I do, to share with them, to love them, to respect them. They, too, are his image-bearers; they're living a different level of God's providence for reasons that are strictly between them and God. That's why God will judge between me and them, because the only moral failure here is mine.

I've always known these things, but today I see that, because I don't feel them in my heart, my attitudes and behaviors are based on Satan's lie that people in poverty are worth less than I am. Lord, help me repent, and help me to commit this sin no more.