Prayer Concerning Appearance and Being

                Read James 2:1-7.

My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? ² For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” ⁴ have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? ⁷ Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?

                Lord, the culture in which I awoke this morning and in which I will go to sleep tonight is a culture that makes heavy investments in the cultivation of images or appearances.

                It is hard for me not to allow the cultural tide of a focus upon image and appearance to sweep me along.  The evidence all around me is that we build or break reputations and we give or withhold rewards more based on what people sell themselves as being than based on what they actually are.

                I do not want the cultural tide of a focus upon image and appearance to sweep me, Lord.  I do not want my concern about what I seem to be ever to become more important than my concern about what I am.

                For the sake of integrity, I do not want to sell out seeming to being.  The psalmist (51:6) said that you "desire truth in the inward being."  I know there will not be truth in my inward being if appearances become more important to me than reality.  If seeming generous becomes more important than being generous, if seeming devout becomes more important than being devout, if seeming to care becomes more important than caring.  I know integrity will get lost along the way.

                For the sake of the quality of my work, I do not want to sell out seeming to being.  If I worry as much about how people think I am doing my job as I worry about how I am actually doing it, I introduce double-mindedness where there needs to be single-mindedness.  My sensitivity to the grade I receive will siphon away concentration it would be better to spend on the task.  I do not want that to happen.

                For the sake of my peace and steadiness, I do not want to sell out seeming to being.  The game of pretending is a tiring game to play; acting a part can take more out of us than living a part.  Since what satisfies one spectator may bore or annoy another spectator, trying to please everyone is like trying to fight a war on a half dozen fronts.  Reducing the war to the one front of being concerned about what I am instead of about what I seem to be can be like signing an armistice.  I need that armistice. 

                Seeming and being: help me, I pray, to put being first today.  Amen.