Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others.
Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Romans 12:10
I hear quite a lot about "Empowerment." Entire seminars, programs, communities, and facilities have been dedicated to "Empowerment." Yet, at the same time, while I'm hearing the call for "empowerment" I am seeing the need more for RESPECT to be the topic to be shared, taught, embodied and lived out.
You see, when we have respect for ourselves AND we also respect others, our world will become much more tolerable and tolerant. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we shouldn't be selfish or try to impress others, instead we are to be humble (not humiliated, but humble also known as respectful!).
Jesus, Himself, reminds us that we are to treat others as we want to be treated. So think about how YOU want to be treated and then treat others the same way. It's really quite simple: If you want to be respected, then BE respectful and in so doing you ARE empowered because YOU control how YOU treat OTHERS!
This means we will need to step out of the ME FIRST AND ME ONLY mentality!
I once had a professor who was to teach our class of learned imbeciles about how to help people who are hurting. On the first day of class, he walked in an we were all talking amongst ourselves, not realizing that he had entered the room, until he raised his voice and informed us that we had just failed his course, at which point he walked out. On the second day of class, about half of us bothered to show up and when the professor entered the class, conversation stopped and we gave him our attention. He told us, "One of the lessons about helping people who are hurting is helping them realize that forgiveness is always an option. And with that comes respect. From this day on, I will treat you with the respect and forgiveness or disrespect and selfishness with which you treat me."
To be truly EMPOWERED is to have the power to show respect even if or when it is not shown to you, because YOU have that power!
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