01.09.06

Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? - Matthew 7:1-3.

Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” - Luke 6:36-38.

We have had a ten-year-old girl, Morgan, staying with us while her brother is receiving cancer treatment in California. During the Christmas break, she was able to go and spend some time with her family in San Francisco. In order for her to have a direct flight to San Francisco, we took her to Dallas. We arrived early and did explore some since we had only once been through the DFW terminal ten years ago on a connecting flight.

It seemed somewhat strange to me that so many people always appeared to be late because they were hurrying and running. I was glad that we had arrived a couple of hours early and we knew that Morgan’s flight was leaving from gate A33. Not wanting to hurry we arrived at the gate about an hour ahead of time. The flight was to leave at 6:33 p.m. Around 6 p.m. Jeanie wanted to make sure all was set for Morgan. When she talked to them, we found out the flight was now leaving from gate C22. We ended up hurrying ourselves to get to the right gate. We did make it in time but while we were at C22, they changed the departure gates on several other flights, which meant that many others would be hurrying as well.

From the outside looking into the lives of other people, we usually do not really understand all that is going on. We may think we do as in my thinking people had just arrived late for their flights causing them to hurry; however, I was wrong, as I have been about a lot of things. Have you ever been wrong about what is going on in someone’s life? I know I have been wrong about that too many times. The experiences of our lives simply do not match up with the experiences of others. What we have gone through may have been difficult but what they have gone through may have been horrendous with many different variations. Not having walked (or run) a mile in their shoes it is impossible for us to understand why they have done the things they have done.

It really is easy to judge what others are doing or have done. It is easy to condemn them for their missteps. However, it is a whole other thing to judge ourselves, condemn ourselves, and to recognize and then pull the “plank” out of our own eyes.

We can be thankful in this New Year that we have a God who loves us and is always ready to forgive us when we turn to Him. Let us follow His example through this New Year.