taking out the trash talk

I've been thinking about the term "trailer trash". I'm ashamed to say it, but I have met some folks over the last couple weeks that I might have labeled as such in the past. They are people I have mocked in my mind (or perhaps out loud). I have been meeting people who are the "them" whom I have seen, for most of my life, as separate from "us". One always feels safer when she can justify mocking those who sit on the other side of a gap. Let's be honest: even when we don't say it, we find ourselves viewing some people as lesser, as "other".

Truly living out ministry over this next years means that I have to close that gap in my mind. I have to let God rewire my vision, to see through his eyes rather than through the lens of my culture. I have to learn to look past everything that is absolutely prototypical of "trailer trash" and see a neighbor instead; just like my neighbors have to look past things that might look different or irritating about me. In fact, it's not just enough to consider someone my neighbor--the call of the Word is higher: "in humility consider others better than yourselves."

As I read Proverbs this year, I am reminded again and again that God is all about the heart. His approval has nothing to do with socio-economic status. He puts it this way: "better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice" (Proverbs 16:8). The righteous, whether they are men of great means or little wealth, are those he loves. The wicked and unjust, whether they are mighty or oppressed, are those he detests (15:9).

Destests. That's a heavy word. As he once told a prophet who was hunting for a handsome new king, the Lord does not look at the outward appearance, but at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). God looks on a greedy, judgement-filled heart with the same disdain we generally direct at those on the other side of the socio-economic gap. And he looks at the righteous heart with the same approval we freely offer to those who are most like us.

If that's the case, then trailer parks are probably not much different than any other place; some trash, and some treasure. If the heart is the standard, then there is probably just as much corporate trash as anything else. Trailer trash, middle-class trash, upper-crust trash...or treasures in all three places. It's a matter of character, a matter of a heart that loves, or does not love, like Jesus does.

If I'm honest, a look at my own reactions to those around me makes it quite clear that I have some trash to take out in my own heart.