Judgement
Posted by John | Filed under Uncategorized
At church service today an older gentleman got up to read the scripture. He spoke too softly so I could hardly hear him, studdered, mispronounced several words and lost his place in the reading a few times.
I was becoming annoyed judging him on how poorly he was doing the reading. I thought what a waste of time and was angry that he was not better prepared. I thought to myself, ” I could do such a better job.”
Then it hit me. How quickly, cruelly, hastily and unchristian was I for judging this man. At least he was making an effort to try and give of his time and service. At least he stepped forward and tried. I certainly did not make an effort to volunteer my time and service to be a reader.
The more I thought about my reaction, the more I realized how often I am so quick to judge people. It seems many times I am quick to criticize others and compare them and their performance to others or me or some “standard” I might have arbitraily established in my head. I don’t know why I am so quick to judge negatively but sometimes I do. I rarely consider what actually might be going on inside them….I only react to their outward physical actions.
I also thought about how many times God was going to judge me for all the mistakes, sins, things I did and did not do. I often think that it “may” help because God always knows what is in my heart and mind. Sometimes on the surface my actions must look much worse then my intentions inside and God knows.
If I believe God will take into consideration what is in my heart and mind when HE reviews everything I do, then maybe I should do the same……consider what might be going on inside someone……….before I so hastily and cruelly judge what I see someone do physically.
I was ashamed of my harsh judgement of the reader today. I asked God to forgive me. I asked HIM to help me be more patient, kind, understanding, compassionate and caring and slow to judgement. Help me realize that regardless of what I see, I don’t know what is really going on in someone’s heart. Only God does.
If I expect to be judged by a fair, merciful, forgiving, understanding and compassionate God, then I should
use the same criteria when I judge others. Come to think of it, why am I judging anyone at all. I will never know what is really going on with that person. So I continued to pray to God to help me be much less judgemental of everyone and leave the “JUDGING” up to God.
