so fast to pass judgement

I have to admit to being curious about how people will react to this word prompt Fast provided by Miss Kate.   It’s a word that can be mainly used in a couple of different ways, so don’t you think it will be interesting to see what people do with it?   And I suppose the bigger (or would it be smaller) question is.. what will I do with it? 

In the end, I came up with this poem, so fast to pass judgement, and I have to admit, my thoughts are imperfect.  I am still in the process of sorting out my reactions to events in life.  Sometimes I am so tired of this cancel culture we live in.  I don’t like what you think or say, so I’ll just block you out of my life.  Or worse yet, I’ll find ways to attack you or judge you, or …. without giving you the opportunities to talk it out with me.   I so want us to DO better, but I’m not really sure how.  🙂 

so fast to pass judgment

I watch Facebook
and Instagram reels and
oftentimes the song
Run comes up.

You’ll see pups, cats,
horses, ducks and what not
running. Sometimes
colliding, tripping or
doing something unexpected.

All these critters
doing something at speed
moving fast, and for,
our enjoyment,
captured on film.

I have to admit
to sometimes being
tired of people
picking the same old
tune over and over and
over again.
Can’t people be more creative?

Then I think of a book
I’m listening to
They Call me George.

The author claims
that if people don’t
actively seek out
a multi-cultural society
from the very beginning
of a new country’s development
that it means they are racist
through and through
end of discussion.

And then I think
“Why are we today,
so fast to pass judgement
on those who have gone
on before us?”

I wonder
“Do people not realize how
much we want to
be birds of a feather?
And does that make
us racist?”

I remember the first day
my son
(we live in small-town Ontario)
met a black child for
the very first time.
He backed away from him,
and wondered, “Mommy,
is something wrong with him?”

Also remembering when
I went away to school
and everywhere I looked
there were people of different
colour and how very disconcerting
that was.

I was not racist then,
I am not racist now.
It was out of my
paradigm of experience
and it took me a while
to be truly comfortable.

Someone told me once
that I
“had to learn not to be racist”
when I met people who looked
different than me.

I strong disagreed with
that individual.
Just as I inwardly take
a step back when I meet
a person covered with tattoos,
or with wildly coloured hair,
or really strange clowns.

It’s like I need a moment
to go oh, yes, it’s okay.
It’s fine.
This person has kind eyes,
that person has a heart of gold,
and that person is just
plain scary, stay away from them.

Face it,
some people ARE scary.
And it has nothing to do
with their skin colour,
hair colour, clothing, or
the way they decorate
their bodies.

So why can’t we offer
grace to people in our
past, who were dealing
with their own stuff. Their
own societal pressures,
their own goals in life,
which are sometimes hard
to bend around.

Why are we
so fast to pass judgement?
Either toward people who
don’t immediately think the
way we want them to,
or who acted in ways befitting
their times?
Or who are the same helpless
fallen creations that we
ourselves are?

If we want to claim to
be better… we need
to DO better. And that means
NOT passing judgement on
others until you have
walked in their shoes.

And here I find myself
trying to walk that
fine line of not judging others.
I too, need to work harder
on not passing judgement
so very quickly.

I need to emulate more
the heart of Christ.
One that is filled
with gentleness and
compassion for this
sinful family he
calls his own.

God’s words, and me a bit more

So yes, I admittedly went a bit beyond the five-minute timer on this, but words flow, you write.  That’s the way to goes sometimes. 

My heart verse has always been 1 Peter 2:9-10

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

So I often find myself asking this question: how in this situation can I show grace, or mercy to this other person.  Often I fail. I’m just frustrated, tired, caught up in other people’s angst, or just plain selfish.  Focused on me, not on the Lord residing within me.   I need to remember to step back and say, “Okay, girl child, how can you show grace here, in this exact situation?”

God is so crazily gracious to me… IT BLOWS MY MIND.  I see my failure, and the gick of who I am so clearly sometimes.  And yet, and yet, he still gives rip about me.  He still calls me his very own. This overwhelming grace that he bestows upon me begs me to send it out to those around me. 

So can’t we find a way to do better?  To just stop being so fast to pass judgement?