Blog 3412 – 03.07.2025
The True Measure of a Person
The true measure of a person is not the number of places left of the zero on their bank statement, the size of their hat or the ranch to back it up, or the size of the breast (ladies) or another part of their anatomy(men.) The truth stature of a person can be measured by the way they treat “the least of these.” From Jesus, of the New Testament of the Bible” I borrowed that quote and to it he added “my brethren” by which, not being a misogynist, he meant siblings (brothers and sisters.)
Jesus went on the make clear what he meant by using a number of examples to illustrate how this treatment might be clear to us and all how we should and should not treat those we might consider less. Jesus brother James who some believe wrote the letter named after him in the New Testament plainly condemns the practice of giving special seating to the rich and asking the poor to sit on the floor. Clearly both Jesus and James would agree with the Sunday School song that says, “Red, brown, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
Last Friday on Texan Day I posted a picture of me, bearded and with a big cowboy hat on my head. The Texas expression for someone regarding over-rating one’s own worth is “All hat and no cattle.” Well I do have a big hat in that picture and no cattle unless wild deer and wild boar count on my 15.5 acre spread soon to be 31 acres, next to sixty acres of timber land that my son Jay owns just a mile outside Bon Wier in far south east Texas. Just a few miles further and it would be Louisiana. Reminds me of a John Wayne impersonation line I have used a few times, “They call me Tex. I’m from Louisiana, but ain’t nobody gonna call me, Louise.”
In today’s picture I am dressed in black. For a couple of years some fifteen years ago, I dressed all in black every day and folks would say, “Like Johnny Cash?” And I would say, “No, like Paladin in Have Gun Will Travel.” The reason I wore black was the same reason that I wore a chain around my neck with a silver cross, a silver Star of David, and a star and crescent moon, to remind me to pray for my three lesser brothers who all believed themselves to be better and more entitled than others and were at war with others. They considered themselves God’s chosen people. James and Jesus again, “God is not a respect or of persons (translation: God does not pick nor play favorites. As a heavenly or perfect father, He loves all his children the same.) The more closely we follow our father’s example the more like him we look.
The New Testament also says that we should pray for those who despitefully use us. If we love only those who are good to us or profit us in some way how are we different from the “bad guys.” I love the line from the seventies rock song, “There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys. There’s only you and me and we just disagree.” We must love the disagreeable to be children of our father. They too are family.
Sometimes the good guys wear black hats and visa versa.
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White
Ballad of Paladin Have Gun Will Travel
theencouragingword 