September 15, 2009

Judgment

Our lunchtime ladies Bible study is currently doing the Priesthood series by Beth Moore. A couple of weeks ago she brought a verse to our attention that I really needed:

“But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. Woe to them!” Jude 10-11a

I have a problem with judgment. Its something I’m aware that I need to work on, but many times the flesh gets in the way and I say/think it before I can filter my thoughts.

One week, I was going at it from both sides. Early in the week I saw a local gospel singer in the weight room, looking at himself in the mirror as he did his bicep curls. For a Christian in the public eye, he’s acting awfully vain.

Later that week, another local gospel singer came into my office at work. I was shocked to see that he was morbidly obese. For a Christian in the public eye, he’s terribly overweight. Doesn’t he know our bodies are a temple unto the Lord?

No wonder Christian public figures come crashing down so hard sometimes. If the church judges them this harshly, what must the world be saying?

Since then, the Lord has shown me firsthand how much pain can be caused from judging what one does not know.

A young twenty-something and her husband entered the front doors of the church, holding hands. What made them different from any other couple? The surgical mask she was wearing over her nose and mouth.

Some in the church mocked her behind her back. What is she a germophobe afraid we’re going to give her something? These words were spoken in my mother’s class. Since s didn’t know the situation she tried to ignore the comment and change the subject.

Later, in my Sunday school class, that same couple entered the room and took a seat. When it got time for prayer requests, the husband spoke up and requested prayer for them, as they were travelling in the coming weeks to the state capital for her to receive bone marrow transplants.

Two Sundays ago, she came to church – without her mask – to share a message in song for the church. The pastor explained her situation, and then she began to sing “You were there” as a thank you to everyone in the church who supported them. The slideshow behind her included pictures of get well cards as well as pictures from the fundraising yard sale our class had to benefit her.

Hopefully she’ll only ever know of the love and encouragement of her church, and never learn the judgmental comments that were made. I sat smugly in my pew, hoping that those same people who made the comments were watching, mortified of the judgment they had made.

(Yeah, I was probably sitting in judgment of them at the moment. It’s a tricky thing isn’t it?)

Then the hardest incident hit home. A judgment about me – brought to my attention – by someone who just doesn’t understand my life. What hurt me the most is that it came from someone I care about, who I thought really liked me.

Pretty much all weekend I was depressed about it. Too depressed to exercise and too depressed to eat (well eat much).

That one moment of judgment has changed me, and has changed our relationship. I’ll probably never be able to open up to this person, like I have in the past.

"Forgive as the Lord forgave you." (Colossians 3:13)

I’m working on that now. Not there yet, but hopefully I will be.

12 comments:

  1. It's a daily process. Forgiveness is hard, but it can happen. =)

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  2. Oh, that is so hard. I agree with Lois though ~ forgiveness can happen. Praying for someone makes it significantly harder to stay hurt and upset with them.

    {{hugs}}

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  3. What is so sad to me is that people seem to feel most judged at church or by a Christian. I don't know where Jesus' message got twisted around, but that sure ain't it.

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  4. And we wonder why those outside the church walls don't want to enter...

    Thanks for sharing this--so true! I'm so very sorry you've been on the receiving end. It's NOT a fun place to be, but it's made me a more compassionate and loving person in the end...

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  5. Judgment is so tricky! It's in our human nature. We actually talked about it briefly in our Bible study last night. We are working through Proverbs, and it was talking about how God knows our thoughts and we are accountable for them. Even if we don't verbalize our judgment on someone, God still knows we had it.

    Judgments just 'pop' into our thoughts before we are even conscience of them.

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  6. Oh man... such a tough topic. Gotta love Beth Moore! lol

    It's really sad that those who are saved by grace tend to be less than gracious to their fellow human beings.

    Hard to remember Ephesians 4:32:

    Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

    Good to remember that it took the act of Christ coming to earth to DIE in order to forgive our sins. So what right do we have to withhold forgiveness of others?

    Just this last week our pastor said we should have a sign above our church door that says, "No perfect people enter here."

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  7. i am so sorry you were hurt by whatever judgement was passed on you. you're very right, judgement is a very tricky thing. I've gotten to the point where as soon as the thought starts to enter my mind, I try to usher it right out, although I still have guilt for having the initial judging thoughts. A wonderful post to remind us not to judge!

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  8. Great post. It can be so easy to judge others and I think we need this reminder frequently. It really is sad that we who have been forgiven of so much, find it so easy to judge.

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  9. Ugh! Being Judged sucks, but God can use others mistakes (judging you) to help you learn something.

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  10. Learning not to judge is something I think we all work on everyday of our time here on Earth. It is a hard human trait to get rid of.

    Great post.

    I am sorry you have been hurt.

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  11. Wow. That is powerful stuff. I don't have such a problem judging christians, but I judge the non saved ALL THE TIME and I know I must quit.

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  12. When this comes from someone we believe loves us... that is more hurtful than from a stranger...
    I am so sorry this happened, and no, the relationship may never be what it once was.. but we must forgive or we become the victims of others. In most cases it causes us more pain that it does them.
    The sooner we are able to let it go, the sooner we begin to heal and are free to be ourselves again.

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what up yo?