I Thought I Had Learned That Already

Today’s devo is from another valuable lesson I learned in the last week or so. I guess there’s just so many lessons in life that find the need to be repeated in life. This has been one of them for me. I thought maybe it would help you today.

Aloha,
allen

Thoughts
While I was in college I had a very real encounter with the power of stereotypes and stigmas. After picking up the paper and reading of a mother whose baby had been bitten by a rat during the night, I was infuriated. Without knowing the individual’s financial struggles or physical and socio-economic restrictions, I foolishly categorized her in the worst of parental categories and decency of life.

It wasn’t until I was assigned Jonathan Kazol’s book Amazing Grace, that I began to understand the dynamics of life that I had been sheltered from. People really do go hungry. They really do want to work and will work, but can’t find jobs. These were realities I had not fully considered when it came to the newspaper article.

That was 10 years ago. Recently, I have encountered someone that has challenged my thinking again. Let’s just say that their punctuality wasn’t the greatest and the integrity to their word, as far as timeliness, has been broken on several occasions. In my mind I had written them off from any future dealings.

However, as they completed their project, information surfaced that made me feel like an inconsiderate idiot. The horror of their physical and verbal abuse began to surface. The nights they had spent on the run for their own safety. The fear they had that they would be found. I melted. I had written an entire list of preconceived ideas without ever pausing to consider the external issues the individual was facing.

In Matthew 7 Jesus instructs us to be careful about establishing judgments about someone else. The Amplified version translates it like this:

        DO NOT judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you. (Matt. 7:1-2)

It was a lesson I have heard, preached, and learned (so I thought). But it was one that I had forgotten to practice. Even though you may have learned it too, don’t forget to practice it today.

Application
Have you ever learned a lesson that you forgot to practice?

When have you past a critical judgment on someone without knowing their entire situation?

Is there someone in your life that perhaps you need to get to know more so that you can better understand their story?

Prayer
Father,

Thank You for Your grace and forgiveness. How foolish I have been to pass judgment on someone that I knew nothing about. I thought I had learned my lesson before, but You have shown me just how far I have to go. Please continue to refine me through these valuable lessons. Along the way, I ask for Your grace and mercy so that others are not hurt by my foolishness.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.