This TV star shows us how to avoid favoritism at work
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1-4)
I’ve made no secret that I am a superfan of The West Wing. But I may be an even bigger fan of how well the show’s star, Martin Sheen, lived out today’s passage.
In a terrific memoir of the show, the cast shared how Sheen would shake the hand of each background artist (or “extra”) and learn their names before filming.Â
When “crew lunch” was first announced and those “extras” were sent to a separate area to eat, Sheen shut down this Hollywood habit, saying, “We’re all going to eat together.”
My f...
The habit that changed how my kids see work
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
To kick off the new year, we are diving into one of the most practical books in the Bible: James. Over the next five weeks, I’ll focus on one section of each of the book's five chapters and apply it to the work God has called you and me to do in 2026.
Given that Christmas has just passed, I thought we'd start with James’s reminder that “every good and perfect gift” is not ultimately from Amazon or even your mother, but from God.
Of course, God is perfectly capable of giving good gifts miraculously (see manna from heaven as case-in-point). But all throughout Scripture, we see that God most frequently chooses to deliver his gifts through the work of human hands.Â
For example, while God could have miraculously ended the famine in Egypt and Canaan, he chose to do that work through a government official named Joseph (see Genesis 41-45). W...
