Over the next few days I’m going to write about my goals for 2011. This is primarily for myself – a way to process and think through who and what I want to be when we’re ringing in 2012. Feel free to read. Feel free to comment. Feel free to move along to something else.
My next goal for this year is to make a conscious effort to love. I make a lot of assumptions about people. Mostly bad ones. I don’t like this about myself.
A friend recently called me out on a derrogatory comment I made about Sarah Palin. He said I attacked her in a personal way rather than critiquing her on political issues. He was exactly right. Sadly, it wasn’t the first time. I tend to judge people I don’t know: I assume poor people are nice, rich people are selfish, Repulicans are jerks, Democrats are jerks pretending to be nice. In Leviticus 19:15 God says “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” Sounds simple, but it’s not easy.
I don’t just want to be fair, though, I want to LOVE! Jesus told the disciples in John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” You would think we’d spend more time talking about this, being that loving people is THE defining characteristic of a follower of Jesus. But it seems to me I spend way too little time focusing on loving and way too much time focusing on how to be better than everyone else. This year I want to make a conscious effort to love the way Jesus loved.
To that end my third goal is to judge only myself. I include the two together in this post because they are separate yet linked. Unfair judgment stands in the way of love. I mentioned Sarah Palin above – it’s funny that we assume we have the right to judge someone simply because they are in the public arena. That’s like saying it’s okay to gossip as long as it’s with Christian friends who know it’s wrong. Belittling, attacking, slandering, bashing, call it what you want, it’s wrong. All the time.
Making a habit of juding unfairly spreads a nasty darkness in our hearts that leaves its residue no matter how much we scrub. Judgmental people are usually unhappy, insecure, full of regret, and bitter. Judgmental people are not risk takers – they play it safe for fear of failing in front of everyone. Judgers keep up a certain appearance so the world will only see what they’re allowed to see and nothing more. I say this with some first-hand knowledge.
Non-judgers, though, seem to be joyful, content, humble, satisfied. They have nothing to prove to anyone nor do they feel the need to. Non-judgers are risk takers, they make a fool of themselves, they stand naked before a crowd and feel no shame (figuratively speaking). That’s who I want to be: the shameless naked guy!
I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going. If you happen to see me, feel free to ask how I’m doing with the whole loving/judging thing. I could use the help.
