To Judge or not to Judge...

How do we judge others: with our hearts...souls...eyes...or by what we hear?  With our eyes and ears, of course.  We are all guilty of making judgements about or against others.  I know that I judge my neighbors by what I see in their yards.  If I look out my window and see their yards full of junk or unkempt, then I wonder about their interior lives as well.  They may be perfectly wonderful, loving, God fearing people, but my eyes judge by what I can see and hear.  For instance my neighbor on the left has a yard full of junk and stuff.  My neighbor on the right does not take care of his yard.  His aging father comes and mows the grass while his son sits and watches TV.  The son looks healthy to me and has a good job, but looking at him I see a kind of soft, pudgy man.  Is he? I don't know.  The neighbor on the left with all the debris in his yard, looks very manly and does construction-roofing and siding...and yes, he is trying to improve his house on the exterior.  Still, I wonder about his "interior house."  He has a large block storage building, but everything is strewn out in the yard, no mater what the weather. They pile up their trash and garbage bags in the outside building and occasionally walk it out for pic-up.

Now, it comes back to me.  My yard, while not perfect, is fairly presentable.  There are some odds and ends on the front porch that annoy me, but are not awful.  It is my "interior house" that concerns me.  I am not a hoarder, but I have a few things in boxes that I need to get rid of and out of my way.  Is my spiritual life much like that?  In need of cleaning and prioritizing--keep this, get rid of that?  The one item that needs to go out with the trash is my tendency to judge by what I see and hear, not by what I absolutely know as truth or fact.  How about you?  Got a few trash items that need to be bagged up and put out for the pick-up men?  Oh No!  don't tell me you don't because we-all of us, are only human and far from perfect.  Only God is perfect and He (Jesus) left this world without baggage.  So...I suggest that you get out your boots, start shoveling and try to clean out the muck that has accumulated over the years.  For me...I will need hip boots and a big shovel.

To judge or make judgments is not a bad thing.  We need to know or discern what is right or wrong, good or evil.  It is a human attribute that God has given us so that we may make the right choices in life or to avoid what is not appropriate for the good of our souls or spiritual journey.  If something I chose to do...not to do... react to or ignore, isn't good for all or for the majority, than it probably isn't all that good me either, with some exceptions, depending on the will of the LORD.  Discernment is a gift given where we accept what is placed before us or the bestowed knowledge of knowing the difference between the fruit of the harvest and being abel to reject the chaff...let the bad blow away in the wind and only gather the wheat.

Do not listen to the accusation

against a presbyter

unless it is supported by

two or three witnesses.

1 Tim. 5:19

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He who answers before he hears-

his is the folly and his shame.

Pr. 18: 13

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The LORD'S gift remains

with the just:

his favor brings

continued success.

Sirach 11:17

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Do not judge
that you may
not be judged.
For with what
judgement you judge
you shall be judged,
and with what measure
you measure,
it shall be measured
to you.

Matt. 7: 1-2
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Today was All Saints Day, a day of obligation in the church, where you should show your face and partake of the service, if you can.  I couldn't.  All this past week I have felt the twinges of a disk in the lower lumbar getting ready to play havoc and it finally did just that.  This disk has bothered me of and on for years.  There isn't much you can do about a bad disk unless you want to have surgery...and I don't.  Medicine can take the edge off the discomfort, but only by so much.  My best remedy is to get off my feet and go to bed for a couple of days.  That helps.  The thing about medicine-it doesn't like me.  Pills make my head fuzzy and dull and when I sleep I have silly or disjointed dreams.  Sometimes my dreams wake me up laughing, but I can't remember what was so funny.  If I could recall the "laughing dreams" I'm sure I could write a good, funny book.  So, I do try to avoid pills as even a couple of Tylenol can make me loopy...and I'm crazy enough already!!