Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart. 1 Sam 16:7 (MSG)
Last week we looked at the Parable of the Persistent Widow found in Luke 18:1-8, and discovered that the parable could be less about persistence and more about stereotypes, labels, and our drive for vengeance.
Take some time today to read over any devotions you may have missed, or send us an email with your thoughts on last weeks series. We’d love to hear from you! Our contact details are below.
In The Light of Grace – A Sunday Challenge
What are some stereotypes you have of others? Or about ideas, organizations, situations, and issues? How can you go beyond your stereotypes to discover the depth of those people/organizations/issues/situations? Have the labels you’ve used been a hindrance or help?
There is always more to a situation, a person, an issue, than the label we affix to it. If you’re anything like me, I want people to take the time to consider the context of my life, rather than just file me away under a generic heading. I want to be seen and known.
I bet you do, too. And to do that, we have to take the time to look beyond our stereotypes and boxes and labels; we need to be humble enough to listen and learn; we have to be open enough to see someone’s story in the light of grace. The same light we want to be seen in.
We mustn’t rely on outward appearances; dress sizes and style choices; ethnicity or sexuality; education or career; address or back balance; soundbites on youtube; 140 characters on Twitter; perfectly framed images on Instagram; labels and stereotypes and assumptions:
We must seek and search all the way to the heart.
And then the challenge becomes: what do we do when we find it?
Written by Lizzy Milani
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