Who among us has not looked at another person and made some
snap judgment about who they are and what they might represent? We make instant decisions about the social
class, intelligence, and status of others in a moment, even if we are not conscious
of our thoughts. First impressions are strong and hard to ignore. But, as we all know, we are far too complex for
us to be able to categorize another in 30 seconds! Beside that, our ‘judgments’
are influenced by our culture, our experience, and our prejudice.
Many years ago, when I was a teenager, my father traded in expensive purebred Arabian horses. On a Thanksgiving afternoon, a man knocked on the farm house door asking to see our horses, claiming he was interested in a purchase. He was ragged looking, unkempt beard, old clothes, worn shoes. My Dad, a warm person generally, was polite but dismissive as he told him that did not deal in ordinary grade horses. The man gestured to the vehicle a little ways down the drive, a Rolls Royce, and assured Dad that he could afford to buy several of his horses! We learned that he was a wealthy man in the financial markets of New York City with a country home located nearby. He became a good friend and bought several expensive Arabians from our stable over time!
Have you ever jumped to the wrong conclusions about another
like that? We are inundated with
messages about those who are ‘different’ from ‘us’ these days. Most of those
messages are about danger. As a result we tend to see threats where there is no
real reason to do so. Despite our multiple connections to others, we have grown
more ‘tribal’ interacting only with those who look like us, worship like us,
and share our views about the world. Meaningful conversations across cultural
divides have become more complicated than ever!
Christian, here is what Jesus said to us … “Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. For others will treat you as you treat them. Whatever measure you use in judging others, it will be used to measure how you are judged. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:1-4, NLT) When we belong to Him, He desires that we throw away that attitude that says ‘I’m better than you!”
Truth - God judges and tells us to love! He alone
sees the full context of another's life. We are most unlike our Father in
Heaven when we judge others based on one small slice of life. There are days
when I fail miserably, when I am short-tempered, full of Self, in the grip of
my sinful nature! But those days have a context within my whole life. Sometimes
they come when I am weary from the struggle or overwhelmed with
responsibilities. God does not suspend His expectations of me when life is
hard, but neither does He dismiss me as a failure on the bad days! The Bible
teaches me that He comes to me in those moments as my Comforter, my Advocate;
Who "helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray
for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express." (Romans 8:26, NIV)
Pray for grace to love them all;
the good, the bad;
the whole, the broken;
the clean, the dirty;
the together, the fragmented;
the beautiful, the marred.
Love will not allow us to turn from those we consider “less,” to blame others for their plight as we live
in our superiority. Godly love will
engage, hope, invest, and redeem. That's what love did for me. I am a debtor to
grace, with no reason for pride! Let’s
aim to love others, careful about our conclusions, quick to encourage. To be sure the importance of having insight
and being able to detect real dangers cannot be denied, but it is not likely
those conclusions will be reached in a moment’s time. Scripture tells us that ‘love
is patient!’
Here's a word from the Word. Meditate on it as you prepare for this new week.
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:7-11, NIV)
_________
(Video of this
blog at this link)
I searched the world but it couldn't fill me
Man's empty praise and treasures that fade
Are never enough
Then You came along and put me back together
And every desire is now satisfied here in Your love
Oh there's nothing better than You
There's nothing better than You
Lord there's nothing
Nothing is better than You
I'm not afraid to show You my weakness
My failures and flaws
Lord You've seen them all
And You still call me friend
'Cause the God of the mountain
Is the God of the valley
There's not a place
Your mercy and grace won't find me again
You turn mourning to dancing
You give beauty for ashes
You turn shame into glory
You're the only one who cares
You turn graves into gardens
You turn bones into armies
You turn seas into highways
You're the only one who can
Brandon Lake, Chris Brown, Steven Furtick, Tiffany Hudson
© 2019 Brandon Lake Music; Maverick City Publishing Worldwide; Music by Elevation Worship Publishing; Bethel Music Publishing
CCLI License #810055
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