Judging

weeds

Tues Jul 28 Mt 13:31-35 pray-as-you.go.org

Hi ~

1.  Word(s) that caught me: judgment

2.  Emotion that overcame me: fear

3.  Invitation that freed me:  “Don’t judge.”    I spent some time considering why it is that we need to let the weeds grow with the grain.  Maybe they’ll be transformed before the judgment.  Maybe they have a work to do.  Or maybe, just maybe, the basis upon which we decide what is a weed and what is grain, is subject to error.

I don’t ever remember anyone teaching me what was a weed in the yard and what was not.  But I have spent some time with with my daughter pointing out to her the difference between weeds and plants.  It’s not easy.

Back then, the basis for judging others’ fitness for the Kingdom had to do with bloodline and culture and gender.  Today, if we were to look around us and make a judgment call about each others’ rightness for the Kingdom, I wonder what we would use to discern who is right and who is wrong.  Education?  What people I know believe?  The books I read?

I think the point is that whatever method we may use to decide whether someone is right or not, it is flawed.  My background, my preconceived ideas, my particular mindset.  I cannot judge someone else’s fitness for the Kingdom because these things block my vision.  So the answer is not to judge.  Judging is left for God to do at the time of the harvest.  Lord, help me to remember that my particular set of discernment tools are flawed.  I cannot pick out the weeds among people; in their thinking; nor in their behavior.  Keep me from judging.  Amen.

Advertisement