The difficulty and necessity of impartiality.

I will admit that I have favorite students at my job. That being said, I try my best to be impartial towards them and treat them the same under school regulations as those who tend to be in a perpetual state of trouble. It is only good to do so. For instance, I had to take the cell phone away from one of my favorite students today because she just up and decided to answer it right in front of me. I was left with little choice, really, if I wanted everyone else on campus to know that I treat everyone equally.

Her boyfriend was pretty angry, as I found out near the end of my shift. He asked what was wrong with me for taking it from her when all she was doing was "answering to say she couldn't talk." Besides the lack of logic in that statement, I decided to approach his anger from a different angle. I told about the necessity of my impartiality. "What would the other students think, watching while I let her keep her cell phone but had taken theirs?" Partiality would have been a gross act of negligence and very well could have broken the trust many students had in me. That's not to say that it is easy to be impartial; just good. Thankfully, he saw the wisdom in my ways and let go of his grudge.

I learned these lessons the hard way by letting my favorite students (or the ones who could beg the best) off the hook. It was not good, not because other students saw, but because I was being lousy with my authority and responsibility. My conviction in this area revolved around the amazing truth that God, Himself, shows no favoritism. Peter, in speaking of Jesus, says, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right." We disdain people who show favoritism. How much more would we disdain God if He made our lives and salvation contingent upon how well we wheedled Him into treating us better than our peers? Therefore, be honorable and love all people equally.

Chasing justice

Today, I had to chase down a spray painting juvenile who decided to run through the parking long of my school. As I was running after the guy, I couldn't stop thinking of how surreal the situation was. I'm on my phone with the police dispatcher zeroing the cops in on the guy I'm tailing and he won't stop even though he knows he's going to be caught. Thankfully, I could tell by the way he acted that he wasn't yet hardened in his ways.


Regardless, my duty as a Christian at that moment was to bring a boy to justice and I realized, even as I wanted to share the Gospel of mercy with him in some fashion, that God glorifies Himself in two main ways: Through his justice and through his mercy. My job at that time was to bring about the justice of God through the position of authority he had give to me as a high school security guard. It pleases God when justice is upheld.

People tend to ignore the justice of God as a means of His glory, it seems. They want to see "God as love" as opposed to the God who, in delivering His love, also took out His wrath on His Son who stood in our place. That is how Christ glorified Himself and redeemed us. Yet, without justice, there can be no deliverance. The wicked go free and are glorified while the righteous wither away and die.

The covenant God and infant baptism.

I am a Christian of the "Reformed" tradition but in a more specific sense than most people might consider. Scriptures concerning those who are saved are unified through the will of a covenant God. He has especially extended his grace and mercy to and through families. Peter even says, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call." We are also told to raise up our children in the "fear and admonition of the Lord." In talking about God's commands in Deuteronomy, Moses commands families to, "Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Thus, all things considered, I specifically believe in infant baptism as a visible sign that our children are being brought into the covenant (though not necessarily saved) because of God's covenant to us. Paul writes to the Corinthians, "For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." Pretty awesome!

Risen from the dead.

A friend asked for proof that Jesus rose from the grave, so I addressed the question behind the question that many people are really seeking the answer to (Why does that matter?):


"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. By faith it is understood that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. That being said, people did see Jesus rise up from the dead. More importantly, that incredible sign was not, in and of itself, enough to save those who experienced the miracle without faith. "Proof" does not fix a broken heart."

For what price will you sell out?

Everyone has a price. Every last one. We have sold out our honor and integrity in the moment to something seemingly more important. "Our word is our bond" we say, but even the strongest of us break it easily for something. That something for me has predominantly been my lust (amongst many other things). I have historically broken appointments, ignored the needs of my friends and forsaken God in order to sate it. Inevitably, I find that when I do so, my life is like a trash bag with a hole in the bottom. It's not even worthy of the stinking filth it's supposed to hold. I am worthy only to be thrown away. More so, I'm deserving of judgment and in need of forgiveness by the ones I have neglected.


In no way can I call myself better than any man and, often caught red-handed, my defensive walls go up, accusations against the other begins, and I try to defend my "phantom honor." Much like a painting that has been taken off a wall after years in one place, there is the shade of something that should be there but I cannot grasp what was lost. Foolishly, I try to point out that it did, in fact, at one time, actually exist. Pathetic! I humble myself here so that no one can call me self-righteous when I tell this story:

While working at my job, a student approached me asking for two dollars: One for himself and the other for his friend. I pulled out two, crisp Washingtons for him on the condition that he repay me. He agreed. We had an unwritten contract sealed by his word. A week passed and I asked him for my money back. He balked and suggested that it was only two dollars and was not a big deal. In a sense this was true. I didn't need the money and he knew it. Still, in response, I said:

"Money is not the issue here. The issue is your word and right now you're telling me that you're willing to sell out your word for something as minor as two dollars. If you are bought off so lowly, how can I or anyone else ever trust you for anything?"

The next time we talked, I brought this up and said that I would never speak of it again. I also let him know again that there could be no trust on my part for him. He payed me back a few months later. In any case, we are all deal breakers who thirst for honor that does not exist in ourselves or anyone else we know. Our desire for such an impossible standard is evidence to me that it does exist. Thus, what astonished me today was the realization that Jesus had no price EVEN THOUGH the exchange placed before Him was His life in return for a torn trash bag: Of infinitely less value than two dollars yet somehow greatly prized.

I write this to give us all hope. There is goodness and great love from God just for us. Though we cannot find it in ourselves or others we can find it in Jesus and it is so good. Rest in Jesus and stop trying to work hard to be good. Learn His grace more than your failings. If you can't forgive yourself for the past, ask Him to lift that burden from your shoulders. He already finished those works when He died and rose again for us.