Unfair As Opportunity

“And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Lives generously.”
(Matthew 5:42 MSG)

I’m a solid two on the Enneagram scale and so being nice comes fairly easily for me. It also leaves me susceptible to being taken advantage of.

Jesus offers us insight. He invites us to see unfair situations as opportunities to practice servanthood. We look to His example with the Pharisees, with Herod and Pontus Pilate. He allowed Himself, King of All, to be treated as a servant for humanity’s sake.

Jesus implores us to refrain from holding grudges or plotting revenge. He says instead, live generously. We read that two word sentence “Live generously.” and we start to tally resources: time, talent and money. But I wonder, what is the most rare resource we possess? What, in life, is the most difficult to acquire?

When I think of rare and priceless I think of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. At least, in the branches of my own life, these have been carefully cultivated. Their production has required years of cooperation with the Spirit’s leading and pruning. We are reluctant to give away what has cost so much to produce, aren’t we? It’s tough to hand over rare fruits like patience, kindness and love to those who demand their extraction.

But it’s moments like these where the fruits of the Spirit are most potent. Their sweetness, offered instead of extorted makes them all the more powerful. Besides, we can always grow more! If the Spirit has successfully produced such fruit in us once, how hard is it for Him to repopulate our branches? Doesn’t routine harvest increase bounty? And if we were to leave the fruit on the branch, wouldn’t it rot and give way to waste anyway?

So unfair situations provide us with two amazing opportunities:

a chance to practice servanthood.
a chance to increase fruit production.

Lord, by nature we hate unfair situations. But today, we see them as opportunities for prolific Kingdom expansion, both in our own skin and in the world around us. Help us hold to this perspective the next time someone takes advantage of us. Help us offer fruit like it’s free to produce. Thank You for the chance to practice servanthood. Amen.