The Medium Club

Today I was challenged by Chuck Swindoll's thoughts for today. He told a story about some children who created a special clubhouse. Their club rules were simple. "Nobody act big. Nobody act small. Everybody act medium." In other words, don't act like you are bigger or smaller than anybody else. Everybody treat everybody else in the same way.

Every kid enjoys the sense of belonging to an exclusive group of other kids. They create forts and clubhouses that they can meet in and join together for fun. Being part of a team or fan club gives kids the excitement of doing something they love with other kids that have the same interests. We adults are just the same way.

We surround ourselves with people we feel comfortable with. We feel more relaxed and at ease with people we have things in common with. We form hobby clubs, book studies, and social groups to participate together in common pursuits. Now, don't get me wrong, all of this is harmless enough. These are acceptable and good things to do.

The trouble comes when we begin to think that because of all these good things, we are better than someone who doesn't participate in the same way we do. I see this so much in the Christian world. We commonly treat others differently if they don't do things in the same way that we do. If others don't like to study or worship or read the same as we do, we exclude them. If they have different standards or behaviors that we find repulsive, we treat those people different than we do other people who act and believe like we do.

This exclusive behavior is usually justified by lots of Scripture quotation and protectionist thinking about guarding our children from harmful influences. And then when we do come into contact with others who have lower standards or behaviors than ours, we somehow think we are doing good for society by reaching out to them in God's name. The root of the problem is that deep down inside, we think we are somehow better than others by acting in this way. Many times we don't want to see it this way, because that makes us have to question our heart motives.

Pride and self-righteousness are the roots that hold us to our exclusive clubs.

These thoughts make me ask some hard questions. Do I act the same way with everyone? Do I treat everyone I come into contact with the same kind of responses? Do I show favoritism toward certain people over others? Are my motives for doing kind deeds or reaching out to others for selfish reasons? Do I really think that I am any more acceptable to God because of any THING I do?

Or... Does love and compassion drive me to treat everyone the same, no matter their behavior or belief system? Do I belong to the Medium Club?