My neighbor has been trying to sell her house for over 2 years now with no luck (I'm sure many of you have had a similar experience). I remember her having people over once in a while, but for the most part she kept to herself. A few months ago, she actually moved out and began living somewhere else. But the other day I noticed a letter posted on her front door. Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to see what it said. It was a notice from a collection agency. This letter went on to tell some of the most personal and private aspects of her life; including she was single, never been married, that she was many months delinquent on her payments and if anyone had any personal and financial information on her that they should contact this collection agency immediately. Definitely not something that she would have wanted the world to see. As I stood in front of her door looking at this notice, I thought "What if all of our lives were put out there in the open for everyone to see? Imagine if all of our thoughts, our words, our actions, our deepest, darkest, ugliest secrets were posted for everyone and anyone to read? A scary thought indeed. It would definitely make it a lot harder for us to find reason to judge others wouldn’t it?
In the book of Matthew we read Jesus teaching that we are to "Love our neighbor as ourselves". It's a radical call to love others (no matter who they are) with the same measure as we love ourselves. Jesus is taking these words from the Old Testament book of Leviticus where God says "You shall not take vengeance, nor keep any grudge against anyone, but you shall love your neighbor like yourself." But many Hebrew biblical scholars have noticed that the word "like" could be as easily read as "who is like". In other words, it can also be interpreted as "Love your neighbor who is like yourself". Love others because, in their frailty, they are just like you. When we see ourselves with the same problems, issues, hang-ups and propensity to run from God as those around us, it becomes harder for us to judge and easier to empathize with their struggles. Let's continue to try to love others the same way we love ourselves, but let's also have compassion for others because they remind us of ourselves.
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6 comments:
Scott--
Great blog! Loved this quote from the blog:
When we see ourselves with the same problems, issues, hang-ups and propensity to run from God as those around us, it becomes harder for us to judge and easier to empathize with their struggles.
I think this is a great reminder of what we all need to do. It is so easy to judge someone and their situation without knowing anything about them. This is something I have struggled with and thanks to the grace of God, I am getting better at being less judgmental.
It is amazing when you find out what people are going through in their lives, how you can understand why they are who they are. Your blog also reminded me a of what my mom has always said: "Treat everyone like their heart is breaking, because it probably is".
Thanks for reminding me that loving everyone no matter who or what they are is most important in God's eyes.
"Treat everyone like their heart is breaking, because it probably is." What an amazing quote.
Erica, I've always admired you for being someone who looks at the person and not just the circumstance.
Hello Scott. What a wonderful blog you have! You are a man of many, many talents, and I am thankful to God that I know you and your family.
Blessings,
Don and Carol Gray
i once heard someone say "we judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions" i love that. if i screw up, i think 'but i had good intentions' but if someone else screws up, i tend to think the worst. loving everyone is a difficult thing to do, but if we each represent the radical love of Jesus, maybe it will rub off a little bit....
Great quote Christy!
No doubt most of us live by a double standard. While expecting others to be understanding of our life predicaments, we rarely give others the benefit of the doubt or even consider the circumstances that led them making the choices they made.
Scott...I didn't know you were blogging. So am I...let's share links on our blogs...if you want to.
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