Perspective

I think sometimes it's good to take a step back from the people we know and love the most, the people with whom we spend the bulk of our time, and see them in a different light. It's so easy to take these relationships for granted and because we "know" these people so well, it is so easy to judge them. Subconsciously we think we've earned the "right" to judge them. In fact, a great deal of our interactions with these people are tainted by our assumptions about them--how they will react to what we're saying, how they'll catch the drift of what we're not saying, etc.

In reading this morning about caring for the poor and the broken in my community it occurred to me how much easier it is for me to "excuse" the brokenness of people "out there" in the community. I can say to myself, "I don't know that person's story. I don't know where they came from or what kinds of struggles they've faced in their lives." So in the end, that is a "tool" I suppose, to temporarily keep me from judgment, but is it truly a fix for my struggle with judgment?

Not really. What is the fix for my struggle with judgment? Love. "Love never fails." (1Corinthians 13:8 NIV) In 1 Corinthians Paul gives us a primer on love, all of the things love is and isn't, does and doesn't.

So honestly, what started out as a post about another "tool" for my struggle with judgment--taking a step back from those I'm closest to and looking at them as I would a stranger--became yet another reminder to me that God's love is always the answer. God is love. Love never fails. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but don't have love, I'm nothing.