{judgment}
from someone who wishes she didn’t
I asked this question on my Facebook wall recently: What is the one thing that God says to you that makes you cringe but you know you need to hear?
The answers were varied. They were also very interesting.
But one of them, in particular, stuck out to me. It made me take a hard, honest look at myself.
”At the core, you are no different than those you judge.”
My first, immediate thought after reading it was I don’t judge. But as quickly as that thought came, so did another…Do I? It turned my self-righteous assumption back into a question, pointed right at me.
I am no different than those I judge.
I am unkempt and messy. I am selfish. I am dishonest. I am rude. I am jealous. I am incapable.
I say yes to things I should refuse. I don’t set very good boundaries. I fall down and want to stay there. I assume something is about me when it isn’t.
I get angry and think I’m right. I hurt people and sometimes, I gossip. I manipulate outcomes. I envy good things that happen to someone else.
I am ugly. I am human. And I judge.
Where is Jesus in all this? Knowing my weakness. Believing in me. Praying for my heart to change and become more like Him.
I don’t want to be the girl that quotes Scripture and knows the name of every Bible character in the Word. I want to be the one who recognizes my humanity and prays for it to change.
I don’t want to judge others. I want to love them so they will change with me.
Judgments will only make people run away. I can’t risk this because then they will be running away from a link to the Savior that can make them different.
So I must be…responsible with my life…loving others well…judging them no harsher than I want for Jesus to judge me.
Thank God, He doesn’t.
Resources…
Psalm 50:6: “Then let the heavens proclaim his justice ,for God himself will be the judge.”
Psalm 75:5: “It is God alone who judges; he decides who will rise and who will fall.”
© 2011 by Lisa Whittle. All rights reserved.
