As a young man growing up in church I was very judgemental. Everything was black and white, good and bad, sinners and saints... no grey area. Every night as I said my prayers, I always asked God for two things. Two things which would affect my life and thinking for years to come.... two things that God gave me just as I asked for........
1) Wisdom 2) Humility.... When I prayed those prayers I didn't really understand what I was asking for and what those two words REALLY meant. When you are 18 years of age, you know everything or at least I did. I was going to change the world whether the world wanted change or not. I had a plan. By 21 years of age those plans were in millions of tiny pieces....
All of a sudden my Dad went blind, Mama was dying of cancer, and in Nov. of 1995, I was knocking on Heaven's Door.... almost dead with a blood pressure of 60/0!!!! One gland in my body stopped producing a necessary ingrediate of life. God saved my life, but my Mama...well He took hers. With no money, medical bills to pay, and a Dad to help see after, college was a distant memory. I made many bad decisions in years to come, but I made them and I learned from them. They made me into who I am and they prepared the way for me to meet my future wife, Rhiannon, and the creation of pretty little Boo.
Humility.... well, I was beginning to understand the meaning. Over the years I have grasped the meaning of humility and wisdom. They are both great and necessary assets a person can have to become not only successful in life, but a good person in general.
As a young man, I looked down on a person with a can of beer, cigarette in their mouth, or a person ravaged by addictions..... or anything I deemed as "sinful." Over time, God showed me humility and wisdom.... the true meanings of those two words. The world is NOT solely black and white. There is alot of grey areas.
Atticus Finch, a fictional Southern lawyer in "To Kill A Mockingbird," talked about judging a man before walking in his shoes. Now, when I see an alcoholic, or a man that can not pay his bills, or man locked up in jail.... I am much more careful to paint the scarlet word, "SINNER" upon his shirt. Because, I do not know him, I do not know his story, and I have not walked in his shoes. I do think it is in our nature for all of us to judge, as I have been guilty of, but we must all do our best to restrain our thoughts and words, and read the entire book before just looking at the cover.
I have a story, you have a story, the whino in the alley has a story, the man sitting in prison has a story, the homeless man has a story. Just because someone is not living in a two-story brick home, with a three car garage does not mean God does not love you over them. Jesus died for their lives as well as the rest of us. May God have mercy upon all of us who finds a person guilty before learning all the facts. Money, wealth, material items can disappear in the fraction of a second. Being PROSPEROUS does not mean you are a SAINT and being POOR does not mean you are a SINNER.
I encourage everyone to pray for wisdom and humility in 2011. Praying for those two will greatly improve your life and your character, but also be ready for the Potter to drastically reshape and redesign your image, your life, and your future.
And that's the way I see it.....
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