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!
