I love watching people. We humans can be a funny, peculiar lot. In large gatherings like a concert or a sporting event or a large dinner…seats are usually assigned or paid for. The better seats are more expensive. And usually the better seats are for those of status or priviledge. Or if the seat was purchased and cost a great deal of money, that person must have a great deal of financial means. If a person tries to sit in a seat that is not designated for them, when the true owner of the seat arrives, they are asked to move. The seat is not designated for them or has not been paid for by them.

Why did they think it was ok to claim what belonged to someone else?

All of us are guilty on some level. We think we should have received the honor or the promotion. We think we are more talented or qualified. We believe our education or our status or our money should promote us to a higher place. Aren’t we a sight?

I think I see more of this “crossing boundaries” than I used to. Unfortunately, our society tells us we must be the best, the smartest, the wealthiest, the most powerful. If we have to take what belongs to somene else, well, so be it.

Why can’t we just step aside? Be who we are? Do what Jesus asked us to? Which was to “wash one another’s feet”. Become the servant of all. And take the lowest seat at the banquet table.

Read Luke 14:7-11. Jesus clearly teaches us not to be self-promoting. Yet we are. Plus, we insert ourself into places or situations we should not. It is not our place.

The sweetest sights are a young person carrying a older person’s heavy bag. A young man giving a pregnant lady his seat. The person of honor giving their “best place” to the person of lesser status. The wealthy man taking off his overcoat and laying it on the homeless one freezing on the street. The person who rightly esteems themself.

I am a work in progress. I’m checking my heart for right attitudes. I’m creating appropriate boundaries for myself and others…making covenant with myself and Abba to walk in His love and the light of Jesus.