Do you judge others? What?! You don’t?! Are you kidding me? Because I don’t see how you can get through even one day without judging somebody. Well, maybe if you’re a recluse and have no human contact. Maybe then. But…
If you lead a regular life, with human contact, you gotta judge others.
Yeah. You read (or heard) me right. You gotta judge others. Otherwise, you won’t be other’s wise. I just made that up because it sounds good. But it’s true. And if you’ve lived at least a couple of decades, you know you can’t trust everybody. So, you gotta be able to figure out who to trust. And you know what that requires?
Judgment.
But don’t think of judging people like the knuckleheads of the world do. No, they tend to be hypocrites. And they judge others for doing what they, themselves, do. Yeah…don’t judge that way.
Years ago, I talked about how you need to be a good judge of character. And how I know it’s not the “in” thing, anymore, to judge others. Because you sure don’t want others to think of you as “judgmental”. Right? But, the ironic thing is that everyone…yes everyone…is judgmental.
This includes you dear reader. What do you think (especially if you disagree) about me right now?
Do you accept me (tolerance) and celebrate my diverse (different) opinion? Or do you think I’m harsh and unloving and uncaring?
Have you already decided not to read my articles anymore? Guess what? “Decision” is synonymous with judgment. You judged my articles not worthy of your time.
And that’s quite alright.
I can totally respect your negative judgment of my writing…as long as you take ownership of your decision. It’s unrealistic of me to expect everyone to agree with me or enjoy my work. And if you judge my worldview to be opposed to yours, I don’t expect you to spend much time here.
However; that doesn’t necessarily make you a good judge of character.
Sure, my views might be different from yours. But that doesn’t make me wrong. Wrong is when you choose to lie, steal, murder, and otherwise do injustice to your fellow human beings. So, it’s good to be able to examine someone with wisdom and discernment. Because that can save you a lot of grief and heartache in life.
Here’s my final thought on this for today. If there’s no such thing as universal morality, then just ignore me because I’m just probably another one of those knucklehead Christians trying to make everyone live by my weird rules.
But…if there IS a morality that’s designed for us all, then it’s a good idea to learn to judge others rightly. Soon.
Gonna be transformed in the blink of an eye.
Gonna leave a lot of people askin’ how and why,
But we still gotta lotta work to do till then,
And I know you’re askin’ when is then…
Soon.
(From the song “Soon”)
© 2008 Tony Funderburk
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