Reflecting

Time to do a bit of reflecting. On Monday I did the unthinkable and wrote about politics. Yuck. I’m still trying to get the taste out of my mouth. Blech. I’m not making any promises, but I won’t be writing any more political blogs in the near future. Why you ask? Yesterday, I posted that blog around 11:00am. By 5:00pm I learned that there was new primeval slime oozing out in the unprincipled world of Kenosha politics. You honestly can’t make this shit up, but I can stop writing about it.

For now.

On to something a little less controversial. Hopefully.

It is more than halfway through Lent. During my prayers I have been reading a daily reflection from a booklet by Father Thomas Connery titled “Lent little by little.”  Almost all of these reflections are very meaningful and some even seem to be directed specifically at me.

Take the reflection from this past Sunday for example. It even used my name.

Paul was driving home late one night when he picked up a hitchhiker. As they rode along, he became suspicious of his passenger. He just didn’t like his looks and started to feel that he had made a mistake picking him up. Paul checked to see if his wallet was safe in the pocket of his coat that was on the seat between them. It wasn’t there! He slammed on the brakes, ordered the hitchhiker out and demanded, “Hand over the wallet immediately!”

Frightened, the hitchhiker handed over a billfold, and Paul drove off. When he arrived home, he was still livid and began to tell his wife about the experience. She interrupted him saying, “Before I forget, do you know that you left your wallet at home this morning?”

We human beings naturally judge by appearance; we judge the externals. The tricky part is that we need to make judgments. You can’t be naïve and put yourself in harm’s way. We have to discern what is safe and unsafe. We teach our children that very thing. Yet we are challenged to see as God sees, to look beyond the externals of where one lives or what kind of car one drives. Accept the fact that we know very little of the heart of the person by their appearance. Don’t be quick to judge based solely on what you see. Know that there is more to a person than the clothes they wear.

FATHER, I don’t have your eyes, and I don’t have your mind. I can’t see or know everything. Yet I have to make judgments. Help me with your grace to beyond externals and try to know the heart of another. Grant me your eyes that I may see as you see. AMEN.

That reflection really hit home with me. I have been on both ends of this. I have been guilty of judging others without knowing everything, without seeing the whole picture. And, others have also judged me when they had no idea what I was going through or what I was dealing with. It hurts when people jump to conclusions without asking questions. Especially when they are individuals that are close to you.

The bottom line is that we need to treat each other better and refrain from being judgmental. Find out what’s in the other person’s heart and let them know what’s in yours. It’s least we can do for each other. This is especially beneficial with the people we think we know. Remember, people change and so do we.

Until next time…from the booth.