Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is
illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the
grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Judging a person does not define who they are. It defines
who you are
Kristen Stewart
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa
Before pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean.
Bob Marley
________________________________________
Sitting in a box
With thousands of precious souls
Seeking discernment and direction
For a flawed church
A church blessed and cursed with human creatures
I am gathered with people who love God
And embrace God’s way
But still manage to make a mess of things, as often as
not
Who love each other,
Or at least try to
Wildly and imperfectly
We do not all agree
We are not all alike
There is every color of the rainbow here
Varying theologies
A full spectrum of genders (and yes, there is a spectrum)
There are liberals and conservatives
Farmers and bankers
Urbanites and people from towns so small
You’d miss them if you blinked
All seeking to hear
All desiring to be guided by the Sacred
All wanting to be the church,
The feet, the arms, the hands
Even the voice of Jesus
Now
But we struggle
Our problem is that we are convinced
Of our rightness
That we have a right view of Jesus
Salvation
Ministry
Gender
All of it
My understanding (we say to ourselves)
Is right!
Maybe
Maybe not
And we don’t know what to do
With those we think are not right
Whose views differ from ours
Because in our rightness
They are wrong
Dead wrong
And so we judge this person or that
For this stance or that
Because
We are right, and they are wrong
And meanwhile, they return the favor
So there we are
Divided
Judging (yes, we are)
As I sit in the middle of all this
Feeling more righteous at times than I should
Two thoughts come to me
I have to step away from my rightness
Because even if I am right and in some ways
It is likely I am not right in others
I need humility
I need to embrace unknowing
I might be wrong
I also need to leave space for grace
I am not sure how else to put it
But that person, who believes so differently from me
Got there by their own path
Would I be different if I had walked that path?
How would I believe if shaped by the parents, teachers,
pastors, and life events that person has been shaped by?
Can I, even if I still strongly disagree, seek to
understand
Seek to find a place of grace from which to
See that other
Who is, after all, as much a child of God as I
I am aware it is complicated
What do we do with belief and people who harm?
Who reject, exclude, and diminish?
I know I must stand for what I believe is right
And stand up for those who are minimized and oppressed
But how do I keep that
Awareness
Of my own fragility
Of the ways in which I, too, am “not right”
That keeps me humble and open
Full of love and compassion
It is going to be a long week
#GA227
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