(part 1) (part 2)
On Saturday, I had the great fortune of spending 45 minutes in the car with Jeff, who is my friend and Toby's godfather. He is a man of high character. I have much respect for him, as he has a very desirable soft-spoken-humble-confidence about him. Hence the godfather status, I suppose. Jeff mentioned an informal goal of his for 2008: he wants to judge people less.
On Saturday, I had the great fortune of spending 45 minutes in the car with Jeff, who is my friend and Toby's godfather. He is a man of high character. I have much respect for him, as he has a very desirable soft-spoken-humble-confidence about him. Hence the godfather status, I suppose. Jeff mentioned an informal goal of his for 2008: he wants to judge people less.
This surprised me a little, as he does not at all come across as a judgmental person. I see him as a person who doesn't jump to conclusions. But it's so easy to make assumptions about people. We all do it. We're all guilty. Even the best of us.
Lives matter. Even crooked ones. They matter because they matter to God. You know that guy? You know, the guy that you're certain will never get it together? He just might be the next redemption story.
Lives matter. Even crooked ones. They matter because they matter to God. You know that guy? You know, the guy that you're certain will never get it together? He just might be the next redemption story.
I'd be willing to bet nobody thought my friend Randy would ever change his drug-abusing, alcohol-consuming, verbally-and-physically-abusive stripes. But you'd never know he used to be that guy based upon what you see today. He's a new creation. Redeemed. The old is gone, the new has come. Far be it for me to write anyone off.
I hope this makes sense. I'd like to conclude this series of posts by posting the lyrics to the song that has provoked this installment of What's Currently Occupying My Mind:
He scoped out the market - all the women and the kids
With so many distractions, nobody noticed him
He had a jacket a size too big, a skullcap on his head,
And a couple of homemade bombs
He taped them to his chest...
God loves that guy. God loves that guy.
He followed his heart to a co-worker's bed
He could have salvaged his marriage with kids
He chose to leave instead
He thought it was love, but it was just a mirage
So he sits in his idling car, parked in a closed garage...
God loves that guy. God loves that guy.
Me, on the other hand, I can write somebody off
Like the last check for a student loan
I can love when it's convenient
But it's not always convenient
It's not always the easy road
I want to look past the outside to the well-meaning heart
To the good they forgot that they had
Teach me to love.
Teach me to love.
Teach me to love like that.
He messed up again - wanted to disappear
But he can't cause he's easy to find
I see him in the mirror
God loves that guy. God loves that guy.
Teach me to love.
Teach me to love.
Teach me to love like that.
- Andy Gullahorn, "That Guy"
from his Reinventing The Wheel album
6 comments:
Great post Scott :o)
i see how you are. padding your post stats with 3 related posts in two and a half hours.
you're not slick.
i'm on to you.
yep, post stats are what i'm after here.
i just figure nobody would read one ridiculously-long post, so i split it up. i'm here for y'all.
Scott, I agree on this judgement stuff - I was very convicted about this as well. I wrote about a related experience on my blog in a post called "Lay it Down". I don't know how to link it or else I'd do so.
the same kind of idea has been spinning in my head recently. why is our society okay with the death of anyone - an enemy soldier, a drug dealer, a crooked politician, a serial killer?
especially those who consider themselves pro-life and beat everyone about the head and shoulders with it - those folks are usually the most vocal about vengeance against the enemies of America, as well as rejecting social welfare, because the broken and lost, the homeless, the addicted, the abused, the poor, they should just sleep in the beds they've made for themselves. if they die? that's their own fault.
sorry about the tangent... anyway, yeah, good stuff.
Judge not, lest ye be judged - Matthew 7:1
Dan W
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