Judging Others - The Cool Red Car

Matthew 7:1 says " Do not judge so that you will not be judged." I believe, a major part of our human condition, is that we are prone to judging others and to thwart this tendency, we must, with God's grace, pray and work hard to overcome this fault.

I learned from a dear friend, and atheist, that we simply cannot judge without looking at things from all sides. 

My husband and I spent a good number of nights with this friend, trying with all our might to convert him. One night, we were listening to some really cool, contemporary Christian music and called his attention to how great this music is.  "Just listen to the words!"  We prodded him to answer us as to how he could not possibly, simply, love this great music!?

His explanation helped me in so many ways, when it comes to understanding others, and in turn, understanding how we are understood.  He said:

"To me, this song is no different than a song about a cool red car.  In fact, all these songs are about the same red car.  I love my red car, it's the best red car, my red car has saved me, I worship my red car, etc.." 

Never, had such an idea occured to me.  I simply never thought of it that way.  Just because I believe Jesus is God, the Savior and Redeemer, and I adore and worship Him, does not mean that eveybody else can understand what that means.  To others, like my friend, Jesus may simply be another cool red car! 

I took it a step further and tried to imagine if I saw a group of people, in a building, kneeling, standing, singing to, and worshiping this same red car.  I'd probably think they were a little crazy, especially if I had no interest in red cars.  I might even become repulsed.  That is what I look like at Church, to somebody who does not believe that Jesus is Lord.

Just as I cannot expect somebody to drop their disbelief in Jesus and become a devout Christian, they absolutely could not ask me to renounce my ways and begin to worship the cool red car. 

We all have people in our lives, whom we love dearly, struggling with their faith.  God has placed them on our paths for a reason, and we are called to love them, or should I say, let Him love them through us.   Our place is not to judge them, as I hopefully have demonstrated with my friend's perspective, as we likely just don't see things in the same light. 

Whether we agree or not, we are all God's children.  I pray we can all take this bit of wisdom and see how it applies to our lives.  Don't judge, love.  We can do nothing without Him, we need only have faith, pray, and leave the rest up to Him.