Some thoughts as I read  this afternoon, or other wise one of my
bababababababababababablings. Read it for what it is worth, or delete it,
no matter. I think best when writing cause I have to slow down long enough
to consider things, and thought to send it.

"My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ
with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your
assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also
comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the
one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good
place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by
my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become
judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose
the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which
He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man.
Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do
they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If,
however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU
SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well. But if you show
partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as
transgressors. --James 2:1-10

I've read this scripture over and over many times and felt reasonably
confident I had treated folks the same regardless of their fiscal stature.
In fact, if I felt off sides on this scale it was probably more so
treating those with money and stature less so than the more common folks
of which I am a member. Recently I had attended a convention, a meeting of
fellow blind vendors to be more specific to my point. I was walking down
the maze of halls to the conference room and saw a man, appeared to me to
be dressed in a suit, and he was hurriedly looking for the rest room
before the meeting began. I knew this because I had caught the tail end of
his question to another in passing. There was really no one else around
and so I thought it might be a good idea to do business there myself prior
to the meeting, so I checked out the rooms and etc. and found the rest
room for the gentleman. I first noted he didn't say "Oh hey thanks". I
expected something as such and perhaps a "Are you here for the vending
meeting? Yeah? Oh. Where you from. Hi my name is so and so, glad to meet
you and glad you could make it". And so forth. Instead he asked "Who are
you?" I told him and he just disappointedly said "Oh" and quickly dried
his hands, tossed his dirty used hand towels on the countertop and walked
out. Later I saw him in the bustle of a large over pass skywalk area which
also had a bar and an eating facility and tables and etc. I followed and
watched him as he hollered for his wife like a lost puppy and when someone
else recognized him; off he went playing the big shot walking and talking
with no regard to his wife again. Who knows where his wife wound up. This
man, as I watched him through the meetings, seemed to be only in the
relationships and acquaintances  for his own benefit and not a genuine
concern or experience. This to me is a living example of the above
scripture. I lost respect for him very quickly and therefore need to be
careful not to regard him in the same  manner as he did me only with
opposing motivations. This however is a blatant violation of partiality.
There are other ways it can be done with much more subtlety. I played on a
worship team at our church in Texas for quite some time. We were getting a
new leader who was an organ player and loved the keys. First I noticed how
attention to detail and stresses in the songs we practiced were only aimed
at organ and piano. There was very little and mostly no direction of how
he wanted guitar to sound or be accented. However the true partiality came
through when at one practice time, he must have noticed it himself so felt
need to make it a point to pat me on the back a bit, and proceeded to tell
me how good the guitar was sounding and so forth. Little did he know that
someone borrowed the cord to my direct input box and so I wasn't even
plugged in and coming through the system at that practice. Oh, oh, busted
lol. I didn't have the heart to tell him. I've always wanted to be one of
those people who made you feel welcome right off, no matter who you were.
Ever met one of those people? They stand out so clear. They ask you
questions as an acquaintance or initial meeting and you can tell just from
their  tone and attention that they genuinely care and you feel totally at
home in their company. . My problem is I'm too busy reading the person's
personality upon meeting them I couldn't tell you their name five minutes
after leaving their company. That is something I really need to work on,
and really try to conquer. So point being that  partiality I don't think
in this scripture is limited to fiscally minded motives but  general
caring and not letting anything else get in the way of treating that
person as you would treat yourself or would like to be treated. I am in
much need to treat others that way, especially when things do not go the
way I would like in my day. I trust I'm reminded of my selfishness when I
read this scripture from this point out.

Brad