What's Your Evaluation?

I recently bought a coat at a local department store. The salesman who assisted me in the purchase also concluded the purchase by ringing up the sale. As he was handing back my debit card he also handed me the receipt. He took a moment, while we both clutched opposite ends of the receipt, to point out a phone number he encouraged me to call to complete a survey about the purchase. "When you do," he added with a smile, "make sure you give me a good evaluation so they will know I'm doing a good job." This was the first time I had been encouraged to evaluate a menswear salesperson, but not the first time I had been told by a salesperson how to evaluate him or her. Evaluation, I have always thought, is best done in the context of objectivity and free thought, not as a directive from a person you don't really know that has just sold you something you didn't really have to have. To be told the quality of evaluation to offer is really not to offer an evaluation at all.

I suppose that you and I at times are in the business of pre-determining personal evaluation. Sometimes it's the simple "don't you agree?" that's asked at the end of a declarative statement when we want others to concur with our opinion. Sometimes it's the decisions we make for others, assuming that we know what choice they would make, given the same options before us. Occasionally it's simple tradition when our minds are made up about a particular direction without fully considering other possibilities, simply because it's the way we have always done it!

There are times along this journey with the Creator when we make pre-determined evaluations about direction or choice without consulting the wisdom of God's word or the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Jesus had a lot to say about assumptions made pertaining to right relationship with God. He refused to affirm the evaluation of those who believed their salvation was summed up by a strict adherence to the Law, or to encourage the hatred and prejudice of those who embraced the centuries-old hatred of certain races, religious perspectives, or social positions. He would not confirm the violent ways of those who embraced retribution as means of overcoming enemies. A number of times in the fifth chapter of Matthew, in what some believe to be the most significant of Jesus' teachings, he seeks to revolutionize the thinking of his listeners as he says, "You have heard it said...but I say to you..." His words from these powerful teachings should remind us that the way of Christ is a transformative way that calls us to think and act in ways that reflect an openness to God's way, not a pre-determined path from which we should not vary. God created human beings to think, to make choices, not with the absolute certainty of lock-step conformity, but with open hearts and minds to what God might be saying and leading us to do. Jesus declared, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness..."

I am stubborn enough not to be coerced into reflecting an opinion someone else pre-determines for me. Sometimes I agree with the assessment of others, sometimes I do not, but I believe strongly enough in the gift of freedom that God has given to make my own choices and come to my own conclusions. I believe I do this best when I am in tune with the One who made me in his image, the one who still instructs me through holy scripture, still goes before me in the example of Christ, and still guides me by the power of the Holy Spirit.

To seek first the Kingdom is to set aside pre-conceived notions, choosing instead to live as free and faithful followers of Jesus Christ. That's my evaluation...what's yours?

Jim Abernathy