Bloom Where You're Planted, Revisited

Earlier this week, I was on my every-other-day 52-minute 3-mile walk around the neighborhood, and as is often the case I was having an internal discussion about a topic of interest.  This time the topic happened to be Identity Politics convoluted with Critical Race Theory and how it manifests itself in current culture through protest rallies led by Black Lives Matter activists and others.  Des Moines is no stranger to these events, although they have gotten considerably less violent of late, thank the Lord.  In addition to that, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month just ended, Pride Month just began, and just this week the Governor of Iowa signed into law a bill that forbids the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools in the state.  It reminded me of a quote by T.S. Eliot:

"Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important ... they do not mean to do harm ... they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves."

Which, of course, is the opposite of what the Bible suggest that we do, as laid out by Saint Paul in Romans 12:3:

"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to [...] you."

All this made me think of my own origins, those of my children, and those of others in many different demographic pockets in the community, as wide and varied as they can be.  How do we properly relate to one another across those demographic pockets?  How responsible are we for which segment we are in, and what responsibility do we bear for the welfare of those in other segments?  As I walked, my thoughts began to take on the form of a TED talk, complete with PowerPoint presentation, something like this:

• We don't choose our origins.  When we come into this world, we have no control over the situation into which we are dropped.  We do not choose our race, sex, ethnicity, place of birth, citizenship, parentage, genetic makeup, hair/eye color, our family's relative wealth (or lack of same), siblings, extended family, home environment, community, school district, etc.  We are simply dropped in to a situation with no opportunity for input.  For which of all these things are we responsible?  None of them!  
• We don't choose anyone else's origins, either.  All other people in the world are in the exact same predicament that we are - placed into a situation over which they had no choice or control.  They are not responsible for where I was placed, nor I for anyone else.  So... who is responsible?  King David in Psalm 139:13-16 makes the argument that God is responsible:

For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, 

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book 

and ordained for me before one of them came to be.

• If we object to our placement, we should take it up with God.  Isaiah 45:9-10 and Romans 9:20-21 give us some perspective on that sort of conversation, however.  Tread lightly when objecting to God about the nature of your existence!  Any one of us could have been placed by God in another body, another situation.  Blaming someone else for our predicament is safer than blaming God for it, so that's what we do.
• We are responsible for what we do with our placement.  The parable Jesus taught about a landowner, some servants and their responsibilities reveals a lot about this.  The story from Matthew 25:14–30 goes like this:  

For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent—each according to his own ability. And he went on his journey.

The servant who had received the five talents went at once and put them to work and gained five more. Likewise, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the servant who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.

After a long time the master of those servants returned to settle accounts with them. The servant who had received the five talents came and presented five more. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’

His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’

And of course we know that the two-talent servant also doubled the master's investment, and got the same affirmation and praise.  We also see that the two-talent servant did not object to getting less resources than the five-talent one.  He just did what he could with what he had, and was rewarded for it.  It did not go nearly as well, though, with the one-talent servant; he got rebuked and tossed out on his ear.  Although, it could have gone just as well with him as with the other two servants.  The amount of resources each was given at the start was not the issue.  What they did with what they were given was what mattered.  This idea also applies to temporal as well as material resources.  As J.R.R. Tolkien wrote in The Fellowship of The Ring:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

• We become responsible as we reach adulthood.  This happens attitudinally at the age of accountability (12-13) where we must decide whether we will be surly or positive, upset or grateful, unwilling or cooperative.  Circumstantially, our responsibility kicks in at the age of majority (18-21) when we are on equal footing before the law as with any other adult.  Up until this point, life has dealt us a certain hand of cards; God placed us, and others affected us by making choices for us.  Now it is up to us to make our own choices and bear the consequences for them.
• We must play the hand we are dealt.  Once we become responsible, now the burden shifts to us to make the most of what we've got to work with.  How will we know whether we have done better than someone else, if our situations are so very different? In the game of duplicate bridge, you can actually know that.  Multiple players are given the same hands of cards, and each plays the best they can.  Whoever achieves the highest points is judged the best player. Except life isn't like that.  You can't play someone else's cards for them - only your own.  Comparison with others and what they made of their circumstances is foolishness.  No one can judge us but God.  Romans 14:4, 10-13 puts it this way:  

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. [...]

You then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:

“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,

‘every knee will bow before me;

    every tongue will acknowledge God.’”

So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.

Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. 

• Our goal is to make the very best life out of our placement.  Everyone, each human being, regardless of the situation into which they were dropped, regardless of who influenced them and how, is ultimately responsible as a free moral agent to make the best of it.  Period.  And what does "very best life" mean?  Rising above our circumstances for one thing, whatever they are.  Helping others do the same, for another.  In the end, what matters, what we will be judged upon, is giving God a good return on His investment in us, such that we hear His "well done!" when we pass from this life to the next.

What we don't need is Identity Politics to measure our success or failure in life for us, to level the playing field among us, or to tell us who is responsible for what we did with what we were given.  Identity Politics cannot supply for us a scorecard for our life as in duplicate bridge.  

As David said in 1 Chronicles 21:14, 

"Please, let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

 God will tell us how we did when we see Him face-face.  And God will judge all, with righteousness.