Get your part right. This is the anthem I was taught growing up, by not only my parents, but also by sweet, Christian parents of friends who really followed the heart of God by pouring truth and love into the lives of the next generation. It takes a village y’all. This is an anthem I still strive to live by. An outlook that I try to teach my kids and too share with others, in hopes to pursue the heart of God and pour out His truth and love on others.
Living by this sounds so angelic and beautiful until in getting your part right, you twist it to mean “I am right”, in the face of being wronged. Being wronged or knowing someone is in the wrong can really test our character and integrity of simply getting our part right. I believe that this is not only something I struggle with at times, but that integrity and remaining true to the heart of God is certainly up for question amongst many in the world we live in today. We as a people of this strongly opinionated world feel like we have rights and the right to stand up for what is right, which is true, but many of us seem to lose our integrity in the process. In a means to be right, one can go about it in a wrong way.
Throughout this journey of being wronged, starting with a drunk driver being so intoxicated to the point of driving on the wrong side of the highway and hitting our family of four in a head on collision, we have seen that many throughout the process of putting our lives back together, from insurance companies to even medical providers, have not done the right thing. I understand that people have free will and that God doesn’t cause things to happen to us nor does He magically fix everything we are walking through, but I have stood on the fact of knowing that God’s grace comes in and covers us even in our sin, when we are undeserving and in the wrong, so how much more is He going to come in, cover us, and see us through when we have not brought any of this on ourselves, when we ourselves are the ones that have been wronged. I have believed in standing on the promises of God in being true to who He has called me to be and not necessarily fighting for what is right or to be right, rather, remained striving to “get my part right”. I think Joseph (ya know the one in the Bible with the beautiful coat of many colors that his Dad Jacob made for him) believed such to be true himself.
Jospeh was a favorite of his Daddy’s out of 11 brothers. I don’t know how right it is to have favorites amongst your kids, but I know Jospeh’s brothers didn’t think it was, and sought out to rid themselves of the wrong. In their jealousy and anger, especially after Jospeh shared a dream that made them feel even more belittled, they decided to stage his death to their father and actually sell him into slavery. After years of trials and tribulations, even spending time in prison over false accusations, God positioned Joseph to be used in a mighty way, despite all the wrong that had been done to him. After being placed as second in command over Egypt, Jospeh was reunited with his brothers who came for help. Through a series of requests back and forth, Jospeh taking care of and supplying his brothers with their needs during famine, and even years passing before the brothers returned to Jospeh with his youngest sibling Benjamin, Joseph remained unrecognizable to his brothers. Through all of their interactions, Joseph remained true to who God called him to be, got his part right, and even though his brothers had wronged him deeply, he didn’t jeopardize his integrity in the way he dealt with them. He even tells them in verse 5 of Genesis 45, as he finally reveals his true identity, “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” Wait what? Shouldn’t they be angry with and ashamed of themselves? Weren’t they in the wrong? Yes, but Jospeh remained true to what was right, and that is God. What others mean to harm us, God redeems and turns to good. I’d say Joseph certainly understood the importance of “getting your part right” and remaining true to who God had called him to be, knowing that God would see him through.
The Bible says in Romans 3:10 “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one”. To be righteous means to be right, or in right standing, before God. In knowing and understanding that apart from the grace of God covering our sins, we can never be right before God, we should also understand our need to be right before the world can not compromise the need to keep our integrity and remain true to God by doing what is right and getting our part right before Him. Romans 10:3 says, “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” We often times walk around as “ignorant” as the Bible puts it here, seeking to be right in our own eyes, rather than submitting to the only righteous One.
I know there is much around us, even people around us that are in the wrong, even some that intentionally seek out to do us wrong. However, all of those people, all of those wrongs, pale in comparison to a righteous father that blesses us with His grace, whose word says, in Proverbs 20:7, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.” Choose to accept the gift of grace so that you can stand right before God, keep your integrity, and get your part right over the need to be right or to right wrongs. Let God lavish His grace on your life and circumstances and let Him defend you. Do as Moses told the Israelites in Exodus 14:14 “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” Remember that this was all as they had been wronged, as they were fleeing to the promise land, and as they witnessed the mighty hand of God delivering His people out of captivity by parting the Red Sea. Let Him part your seas, fight your battles, right your wrongs, and you worry about yourself, remaining true to who you are, and get your part right.
