By Steve Conley
Scripture: James 1:9-11
A1: Actor 1
A2: Actor 2
A1 and A2 enter. A1 is looking at a piece of paper.
A1: Will you look at this! How can we afford this? It never fails, just when you think you’re at the top of the hill you get kicked back down again!
A1 looks at A2. A2 seems to be not paying attention.
A1: Are you listening to me? This is serious! I feel like I’m Jack rolling down the hill and I’ve broken my crown. A crown that I will never have!
A2: Trust me, I’m listening. I can’t help from it. You need to calm down a little bit.
A1: Calm down? Are we even on the same page? We do share the same fortune you know. Which appears to be going fast!
A2: You need to have a little more faith.
A1: Ok, here we go. What I need to have is a little more money! I bet Harvey and Jane never worry about any of this stuff.
A2: Now why do you mention Harvey and Jane?
A1: Have you seen the new car they have?
A2: Yes. Is that not the prettiest car you have ever seen?
A1: Yes, and I bet it came with a pretty price tag also. While we’re over here drowning in poverty they are on the cruise ship of wealth!
A2: Now you can’t say that. I’m sure they worked hard for that new car.
A1: Worked hard? Why Harvey has never lifted a finger to do anything. It just falls into his lap. That’s right, the lap of luxury!
A2: You know the Bible says we should glory in our exaltation.
A1: Oh, so I should boast about everything I don’t have? (yelling) Hey everyone, look at me! Look at how much I don’t have! Don’t you wish you could be like me?
A2: No, we should boast in being perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
A1: I don’t know about perfect and complete but I sure got the lacking in nothing covered.
A2: Some day the one who lacks so much now will be brought up, exalted, to a place of completion and fullness. We should look forward to the future, not boasting in the present, but in what God is going to do.
A1: I know you’re right. But what ever happened to fairness? Why couldn’t we be more like Harvey and Jane?
A2: Well, I’m sure they have hard times just like we do. You know just as well as I do that Harvey and Jane have seen their share of troubles.
A1: True, but they always come out smelling like a rose. And have you seen the price of roses lately?
A2: Roses? What’s that?
A1: Ah, never mind that last statement.
A2: The Bible also says the rich should boast in their humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away. The rich appear to have no difficulties in life. What the Bible is saying is that they certainly do have trials as well.
A1: Oh the trials of being rich!
A2: These are the trials of being tempted to trust in one's wealth and believe that they are some kind of sign of one's eternal place or status. Riches will fade away, they will be temporary. Riches do not help one to receive what God has to offer, in fact, they may very well be a barrier to it.
A1: So, it is actually the rich man himself that fades away. He himself is changed from pride in his possessions to humility in recognizing his own spiritual poverty before God.
A2: Now I think you’re getting it!
A1: So, for the rich believer, his boasting is in the triumph of God over his delusion about his own true condition. He my be fooled into believing that his riches gave him a reason to think that he was spiritually rich. However, in the end, through his trials, it will become clear that God is the real and only life-giver, not riches.
A2: You are right again. So do you still feel like you would want to live in Harvey and Jane’s shoes?
A1: Well…..
A2: Really?
A1: No, not really. Harvey and Jane are good people. I just got caught up in the moment. I’d like to stay right here rolling down my own little hill.
A2: You know everything’s going to be ok. With God’s help we’ll get through this and come out better on the other side.
A1: How right you are.
A1 and A2 exit.
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