Judging

So on May 6th I wrote about how old books can be like an old friend that you hadn't seen for awhile, one that you've forgotten about, but can see differently now that your older.  I decided to take my own advice and I went to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  I read it last year as a Junior and decided since a lot had happened since then I would read it again, to see how the book had changed for me, and how I had changed.  Well to my surprise I didn't have to read far to find what I was searching for, actually I didn't even get past the first three lines before I found my inspiration.  The first lines of the book reads;

"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice I've been turning over in my mind ever since. 'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one...just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.'"

I have been trying for about a week to figure out how to start this entry and those words helped.  I've been thinking about this for awhile now,  How much we see it in every aspect of our lives.  How it is a filthy habit that we can not help but to become immersed in it. 

I love watching court television shows, not Judge Judy, but like Law and Order, CSI, and Bones.  And as I was watching the horribly obvious romance between Bones and Booth where they were defending their case in a court room  I noticed something that I haven't ever really realized, and maybe you haven't either.  Have you ever noticed that the judge in a courtroom never makes the final decision? That is always the jury that judges the person on trial.  It never is the big guy in the robes holding the gavel with the title of judge.  It ends up being the twelve people pulled from their every day lives who have to sit for days annoyed about being inconvenienced.  And then I thought of another example, an even better one.  When Jesus was standing in front of the people beaten and hurt although he had done nothing wrong Pilot asked who they thought he should crucify, the criminal the one who had broken the law and done horrible things to get him in jail.  Or the pure and honest Jesus that God had sent down to save us all.  How Pilot, the man holding the gavel (metaphorically), washed his hands of the situation and let the public do what they wanted.  I just can't help but notice that life is more about us judging one another, then letting God judge us all.

There is a saying I always tell myself when I feel that I am judging others, I have it written down in places were I can see it so I always remember it.

  "You can't point fingers if your hands aren't clean."

I have been thinking a lot about how much we judge one another and how much time we spend pointing the finger at others when really what we should be doing is pointing it at ourselves.  We judge people for everything; The clothes that they wear, the people they date, the cars they drive, the grades they get, the food they eat...pretty much anything you can think of we judge people for it.  Sometimes we even judge people for things that we do ourselves. 
So my advice is to think before you say anything.  To not belittle people for the things that they do when you know you have done them yourself, or you have done things that are much worse.  All I am saying is that no one on this earth is perfect.  There was only one perfect man and he is who should judge us, not ourselves.  We have no right to judge one another.  You and I are no better then the girls we judge for their low cut tops or the boys we judge for looking down the low cut tops.  We can't judge people for wrong decisions they make when we make mistakes.  We can't judge people for anything if we think we are better then them.  So my advice is to try not to judge people so much, I know it's hard, I've been trying.  But when a judgemental thought comes into your head, remind yourself you have no right to judge.  Only Christ has that power, and shouldn't we leave it all to him anyway, he is the only one truly qualified for it.  We just judge others and we become worse then they are for whatever is we judge them for.  Do not judge others, it really won't get you anywhere in life.

Syd