James: What You Do Mattersनमूना

My friend, Ethan, recently attended a week-long retreat in which every attendee received the same instruction. During the entire time together, no one was permitted to share their job or where they lived with each other.

“For the first two days it was so awkward,” Ethan said. “We tend to identify ourselves by our occupations and geography. When those were removed, we stared at each other and struggled to connect. No one knew what to say to each other.”

Ethan said he didn’t realize until he engaged in this simple exercise how much of his life was tied to what he produced for work and where he lived.

If you were placed in the same situation, how would you describe yourself?

The opening of the book of James begins with James identifying himself with something that’s outside his day job or geography. He describes himself as “a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:1).

In this introduction, he identifies himself as one who is in service to God and service to others. James models servanthood from the get-go. He knows who he is, whose he is, and who he is called to be.

Only then does he identify those he is writing to: “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (1:1). He writes to Jewish believers in the diaspora (those dispersed) outside Israel as well as us today.

So the question remains: Once you strip away professions and responsibilities and locations, who are you, really?

In what ways are you a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ? In what ways are you still struggling to become that? No matter where you find yourself today, rest assured that in the upcoming chapters, James will equip you to walk out the fullness of that calling.