1,2 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Matthew 7:1,2 (NIV)
After I sat and watched a wheelchair basketball tournament, I made this voice memo in my iPhone:
Do not ever make fun of anyone again.
Don’t ever fail to have mercy on those who are physically or mentally ill, handicapped or disabled. All of us are equally susceptible to the worst maladies that a human can suffer. Therefore, we can never justify judging or failing to have compassion.
I do not know how much you make fun of people. But my friends and I did it a lot in college. Our tendency to judge others and evaluate their flaws is not something we naturally grow out of either.
Athlete, sports present ample opportunities to make fun of others – how they run, throw, jump, or where they are from.
Yes, sometimes we can share a good laugh with our friends about our flaws and their flaws. But, we know the difference between judging someone and laughing beside them.
Athlete, to a degree, people can’t help how they are. That is not to say we are not at all responsible for who we are and what we do. But we do not get to choose our parents, where or when we are born, and if we are disabled or have a disease. We do not get to choose our hairline, gait, voice or the frame of our body.
Do not ever make fun of anyone again.
That rings in my head sometimes when I’m about to “cast stones.”
Jesus told us not to judge others because we are bad at it, and we will hurt others. He knows we will fail in judging righteously, mercifully and in kindness.
Referring to God's omniscience, C.S. Lewis wrote, “He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive."
But we are not omniscient and do not know how wretched of a machine someone else is trying to drive. What we do know is that everyone is fighting a battle we probably know nothing about.
Athlete, in college I judged people as if I was good at it. I made fun of people for things beyond their control. I thought less of people who did not meet my superficial standards.
The next time you are assessing an error or flaw of someone else, address one of your errors instead. Just as Jesus includes you despite your flaws, include others despite theirs. When you include and accept them, you will discover the amazing people that sat in your judgement.
