Judgment. Is There Anything Worse?

There’s something I’ve been pondering recently.

In a modern Western world such as ours, we tout our ability to have near instant news and communication, but we are finding that in that space there is a serious flaw.

We are often shouting into a hurricane… into a vacuum… into our own ears.

We are being ignored.

Social media and the internet with all of their greatness have ultimately betrayed us and left us empty, lonely and unheard.

It is possible to speak our thoughts and opinions and make them available to hundreds if not thousands of people in an instant, but we are faced with a painful truth that no one is listening. Or maybe no one cares or worse yet… both.

Some say that we have all become armchair quarterbacks or judges.

That’s a huge turnoff right?

To be judged.

It’s strange though. The judging.

It would seem that from listening to most everyone, that all judgment is wrong.

Is it though?

I have to ask this. If you don’t practice judgment, how can you move through your day? Your life?

The scriptures would seem to indicate that if we do not exercise judgment, good judgment, then we are foolish. Fools.

If you were a father like me. And, maybe you are. Or a mother. Would you let your child date just anyone?

If you said yes, then I have no doubt you’re lying.

You would do many things to ensure this other person was an acceptable companion for your child. You would in fact judge them.

If you hired someone to come into your home and clean it, you would want a background check to have been performed on them as well as obtaining good references regarding their current and past clients. You’d exercise good judgment.

And, if you became aware that these people were not who you thought they were. Criminals, delinquents, liars or rebels, you would let them go from employment or stop the relationship with your child.

You would. If you were a good parent, or a good consumer or business owner, you would send a person like this on their way.

It’s just good common sense. It’s just exercising good judgment.

I understand fully why we often rebel at the thought of someone judging us, judging our actions or judging the things we say. But, in many cases, whether it’s painful or not, if it’s done in love or with good intentions, having our failings or shortcomings pointed out or brought into the light is what sets us back on the path to becoming a better version of ourselves.

If it’s done in love…

You see, this is where we fall into error… if our good intentions aren’t tempered with love.

I’m not going to lie to you though. No matter how good your intentions may be and no matter how you try to soften the blows of leading someone to understand that they have strayed off the straight and narrow path to a life rightly lived, many of us having been corrected will not respond well.

To be corrected is painful. It’s potentially humiliating. It can provoke us to anger or violent outbursts where our ever so sharp tongues can wreak great destruction on anyone within hearing distance.

Judgment and the correction of those who have strayed in life will never be easy or pain free, so there begs a question.

Do we avoid making judgment and living in silence just to avoid the potential pain of rejection and anger directed at us?

Or…,

Do we in careful consideration and prayer, seek God’s guidance and wisdom to risk rejection as we seek to lead another human being into examining their own behavior, their actions, in light of God’s commands about right living?

It has become cliché to cop out by saying something like, “don’t judge me!”

If we truly love each other, we cannot afford to let one another stumble through life without taking the risks involved to help guide each other back onto God’s narrow road.

And, the only way to do this my friends…

Is judgment…

Good judgment.

Judge well my friends.

Seize the day!

Mike <><