Confronting Biases

Dear Foothills Family,

We're grateful to Randy Bailey for writing our Inspirational Thought this week. Randy and Cammi are devoted, faithful, loving members of the Foothills Church family! Randy also serves on our Board of Operations and is active on the church communications team.

Thanks Randy for these inspiring, motivational words that will enrich and bless the heart of our beloved church!

Around this time of the year I begin that annual internal debate with myself: “So, what are you going to tell people when they ask…’And what’s your New Year’s resolution’?”

Most years my answer is typical and pretty lame, like “Oh, I’m buying a treadmill to finally lose weight,” or, “I got dumbbells for Christmas and I’m going to build that six-pack I’ve always wanted!

When I joined Foothills Community Church I was convinced that was the year to finally break down and read the entire Bible as my resolution. I did better on the losing weight resolution that year than I did reading the Word: That’s the problem with most of my resolutions I crash and burn in good intentions.

Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “To thine own self be true,” and as painfully true that is, beginning a couple weeks ago I began playing back the past months and pondering what to promise myself for the coming 365 days.

Last New Year’s I promised myself the most unusual resolution to date: To be a stronger Christian by not judging people and leaving their judgment to the Lord.

This hasn’t been easy as I spent 20 years being trained as a police officer to judge people and situations instantly. For me, admitting I have biases and they benefit no one but the devil was my first epiphany. I also learned just how difficult it is to drive on I-10 and have someone cut me off without going into a rant.

Throughout this year, I remind myself daily to allow people to hold different opinions (tough in an election year) and different lifestyles without attaching negative labels to them. I need to accept them as they are and try (this is the hard part for me) to love them.

I realized so much of my time was being wasted by negative thinking about situations this year, like how poorly society, including the churches handled the pandemic.

They closed MY church after all! And then they wanted me to wear a mask to attend and don’t get me started on having to make reservations! It was easy initially to call everyone involved in the church management a complete bozo. It seemed like they were overreacting to the pandemic until I began hearing about the thousands of people my age dropping like flies from the virus.

Then I stepped back and realized just how easy it is to make snap judgments and blame people in a situation out of their control. I thought the church had let me down, but actually I had let myself down by allowing gossip and negative thinking to invade my life again.

As it turns out now, everyone involved during those months was doing the best they could do with the resources and information available. To those people I mentally blamed I offer an apology.

In another situation I had to confront my own biases when it came time to welcome a person with a different way of identifying how they saw themselves. Honestly, I had to pause for a second to realize everyone who is part of the church family is a child of God and should be given the same respect as a Christian as I receive. The church family showed how strong it was by making Godly choices. It makes me proud to be a member of the church.

So, as we say goodbye to 2020 (and who doesn’t want to say goodbye to 2020), I’m working hard on my resolution for the coming year. I’ve been thinking I need to walk a few miles a day to get in shape might be what I need as a resolution for 2021!

PS - Anybody need a treadmill for their 2021 resolution, cheap?