THE GATE

Imagine yourself outside a high stone wall in front of an iron gate.  Without knowing anything else, what assumptions are we tempted to make?  We may think by the wall we are meant to be excluded and have no right to be inside.  We may think a rich man lives in there and wants nothing to do with us.  We may suppose he is high-minded, exclusively snobbish, someone with an aristocratic, elitist attitude.  We are supposing things about someone else' life, not our own.  Perhaps we take no thought at all that we have done nothing to earn admittance and possibly have not recognized any opportunity for admittance if it was offered.

We might be tempted to be jealous.  Why is he rich and I am not?  He must have advantages I do not have.  His advantages are unfair, I should have had them.

We see a limo come out and it drives right by us.  We assume He wants no contact.  But in reality we know nothing (or at least little) about him.  We know nothing about his attitude toward charity.  We know nothing about how kind or unkind he is. We know nothing about how or what he desires about contact with other people.

How often do we think of ourselves a bit like Lazarus the beggar outside the rich man’s gate as in Luke 16:20?  We are the poor and needy: ignored by the rich and powerful.

But what if we had the gate advantage? 

We, in fact, do have advantages over others.  In our own ways we have advantages, though perhaps not in money.  Do we stop to think of what these are?  Can we name them?  Are we proud of them?  Do we position ourselves among others by using them?  How do we handle these advantages?    Do we use them well or do we use them to dominate?

It didn’t play out well for the rich man who drove past Lazarus day-by-day.  Let’s be aware of what is around us as we drive out our gate in our limousines.