The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector – How we mirror ourselves through the eyes of those around us

This is an interesting story but before we can drive through the application of this parable please indulge me for a little bit of details pertaining to the characters mentioned here. 

The Pharisee, quoting from answers.com would yield the following meanings;

1. Pharisee A member of an ancient Jewish sect that emphasized strict interpretation and observance of the Mosaic law in both its oral and written form.
2. A hypocritically self-righteous person.

The Tax collector on the other were Jews who collaborated with the Roman Empire .

Luk 18:9  And he made this story for some people who were certain that they were good, and had a low opinion of others:

Luk 18:10  Two men went up to the Temple for prayer; one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-farmer.

Luk 18:11  The Pharisee, taking up his position, said to himself these words: God, I give you praise because I am not like other men, who take more than their right, who are evil-doers, who are untrue to their wives, or even like this tax-farmer.

Luk 18:12  Twice in the week I go without food; I give a tenth of all I have.

Luk 18:13  The tax-farmer, on the other hand, keeping far away, and not lifting up even his eyes to heaven, made signs of grief and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Luk 18:14  I say to you, This man went back to his house with God's approval, and not the other: for everyone who makes himself high will be made low and whoever makes himself low will be made high.

There is a simple and straight forward wisdom here and it is applicable not only in the office but in life in general.  How?  This is how it goes – we can not lift our chairs or tell people of our best traits or good characters. Especially if you are not being asked for it.  The person sharing his or her so called admirable traits is actually the person with the worst reputation.  At the end of the day it is the people around us whom we can use as a barometer for all things good and even bad about us. I am not trying to tell you to rely on their opinion of you but bare in mind that if you are in an office and you do this.  You will end up as a self absorb and conceited person.  But if you allow your good traits given to you through the grace of God then those good traits will simply reflect on people and back to you. 

At one time in my career as a Team Leader for a contact center in Cebu I was blessed to have made a sort of activity which we will call the Paper Mirror.  What you will need in this activity would be a piece of paper preferably with lines A4 size would be perfect and ball pen for each participant.  Asked the participants to occupy a circular table side by side with the person on your left and right are within reach.  Then ask them to fold their paper into three parts preferable cross-wise or horizontally.  Then fold it again length-wise or vertically – just one time. Then label the three rows with the far left –“My personal Opinion” then the next one would be the person on your right while the last one is the 2^nd person on your right.  The upper fold will be for all positive traits while the bottom section will hold the “for improvement traits” – the phrase sounds more constructive and yes this is just euphemism but we do not want to hurt people and the label is very positive as well giving the person room to grow. Anyway, after labeling let the owner of the paper write down his or her own “for improvement traits” in 5 minutes. After that the owner still of the paper will then write his or her own positive traits.  Mind you 5 minutes is more than enough. The other 5 minutes – you must encourage them to be honest and write down the first thing the come to mind. Then fold the fill-up part and staple it so that no one else will see it because you will let the participants move the paper to their left letting that person list down the rows with the same label as “positive traits” and “for improvement traits”. The same time will be given and that it must reach the 2^nd person. The processing part is the most interesting. What you will then ask them is to return the paper to the owner and then have the owner count the traits he or she saw from hir/her list and compare that with others listed.  If they find similarity then your assumption of your self is correct in the eyes of the people around you.  While those which were written about you but you were not able to see it and list it yourself then that is something your peers see you. Good or bad this information will help you and your team  know each other better and if there were those who were unable to write down something about their co-worker then that person needs to know the others and vise versa.

At the end of the day we all are not perfect and we will never will but the great thing is that by the grace of God we can improve as we agree with our maker.

Shalom!

MPM