Everyday is Judgment Day
Today I will make many judgments, big and small. I will judge others, and I will judge myself. Anyone who says they are non-judgmental is only half right.
We don't often think of the many little judgments we make in the course of our daily life. We see and hear a young man rev his engine and squeal his tires and we know he is a fool. We see the numbers 4:20 scrawled on urban walls and think the world is going to pot. We see greenish wieners marked down at the local grocers and decide they don't care about the poor or the poorly sighted.
We see an avowed Christian acting in a decidedly non-Christian fashion and feel their values are false.
What we are doing here is assuming, based on action or inaction, that we have the insight to determine what is essentially right or wrong. Deciding whether young people are good or bad is like making the call on a painting which is still only half done...still resting upon the artists easel and awaiting the artists brush. Perhaps the grocer is colour blind, and unaware of the condition of the packaged meat. Maybe the religious person is like every other person on earth, struggling on their own spiritual journey and mired in a place where they are feeling helpless to act. Even though they feel they know what is the right thing, they just can't do it.
I know how much I abhor feeling like I am being judged, and rail against what I consider any false authority which condemns me. Yet I do it to others.
Conversely, if others praise me, I am greatly inclined to think better of them.
I wonder if the answer doesn't lie somewhere in the pack mentality of the animals. In the pecking order of the social group. In a constant comparison of ourselves against others. Knowing ones' status in society has pluses and minuses. If we are able to look down, we are able to look up.
I wish I could stop doing it. I wish others would stop doing it to me. Will that happen? I do not think so. Even Christ passed judgment on the self-proclaimed and by the book righteous, and forced them to trade places with the outcasts.
In my humble judgment, I am in no way better than he, and I think we can all agree that is a good call.
We don't often think of the many little judgments we make in the course of our daily life. We see and hear a young man rev his engine and squeal his tires and we know he is a fool. We see the numbers 4:20 scrawled on urban walls and think the world is going to pot. We see greenish wieners marked down at the local grocers and decide they don't care about the poor or the poorly sighted.
We see an avowed Christian acting in a decidedly non-Christian fashion and feel their values are false.
What we are doing here is assuming, based on action or inaction, that we have the insight to determine what is essentially right or wrong. Deciding whether young people are good or bad is like making the call on a painting which is still only half done...still resting upon the artists easel and awaiting the artists brush. Perhaps the grocer is colour blind, and unaware of the condition of the packaged meat. Maybe the religious person is like every other person on earth, struggling on their own spiritual journey and mired in a place where they are feeling helpless to act. Even though they feel they know what is the right thing, they just can't do it.
I know how much I abhor feeling like I am being judged, and rail against what I consider any false authority which condemns me. Yet I do it to others.
Conversely, if others praise me, I am greatly inclined to think better of them.
I wonder if the answer doesn't lie somewhere in the pack mentality of the animals. In the pecking order of the social group. In a constant comparison of ourselves against others. Knowing ones' status in society has pluses and minuses. If we are able to look down, we are able to look up.
I wish I could stop doing it. I wish others would stop doing it to me. Will that happen? I do not think so. Even Christ passed judgment on the self-proclaimed and by the book righteous, and forced them to trade places with the outcasts.
In my humble judgment, I am in no way better than he, and I think we can all agree that is a good call.
posted by Byron | 5:09 AM
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1 Comments
