Day 3: Friday, 2/20

READ: James 1:9-11

Brothers and sisters who are poor should find satisfaction in their high status. Those who are wealthy should find satisfaction in their low status, because they will die off like wildflowers. The sun rises with its scorching heat and dries up the grass so that its flowers fall and its beauty is lost. Just like that, in the midst of their daily lives, the wealthy will waste away.

REFLECT

James flips the script immediately. In God's economy, poverty isn't shame and wealth isn't security. The poor are exalted, the rich humbled. This isn't about feeling good — it's about seeing clearly. In DC, a city literally built to concentrate power and wealth, this is a daily choice: will we believe the world's economy or God's? Both can't be true.

RESPOND

How does proximity to wealth or power (or distance from it) shape your sense of worth today? Notice it without justifying it.

PRAY

God of the last and the least, we confess we've believed empire's lies about who matters. Teach us to see as you see. Amen.