Monday, March 14, 2016

Judging By Appearance - A Lenten Minute for Mar. 14

"You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone." - John 8:15

We are all guilty of it.  We look at someone and immediately size them up based on whatever criteria we hold important.  Are they rich?  Are they poor?  Are they a friend?  Are they a threat?  We look at their clothes, the car they drive, the way they talk, the way they smell.  We try to guess where they are from and where they are going.  We respond to them based on whatever judgment we make of them.  And how often are we wrong, sometimes embarrassingly so.  Seeing beyond the physical and peering into another's heart is a daunting task, because it requires us to suspend our aversion to whatever we dislike and fear and risk personal harm in getting to know them.  Yet that is what we are called to: not necessarily to like what we see, but to treat with respect and love the person behind what we see.  We cannot peer into the heart of another without first getting to know them. And that means judging our own hearts first.

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