Tammy silently judged her friend thinking Judy is a hot mess. She ought to be ashamed of herself being in an adulterous affair.Two years later Tammy was creeping into hotel rooms with her boss.
As Sean sipped on his gin and tonic, he shifted in his seat thinking that fool David lost a 50k a year job stealing from the petty cash drawer. Not too long afterwards because of her alcoholic binges Sean’s mom lost her job.
Billy considered the time when he divorced Joan. He reveled in family and friends alienating Joan. She got what she deserves, he reflected. What Billy didn’t see coming was his coworkers alienating him when he lost the Boatwritght contract.
Do you see the connections? The stories were made up, but the consequences of judgment were not. Years ago I realized the alignment. Whenever I judged a situation, even if I judged it silently, the weirdest thing happened. Either the situation would happen to me or worse- to someone I love.
I was puzzled- “Lord what am I doing wrong,” I asked. After all, I was not gossiping; these were just thoughts of judgment. The Lord explained, “You are never to judge people, not even in your heart. I said, “But Lord the bible supports my position.” “Precisely- if the person in question is open, you can tell them what the bible says, but it is never ok for you to judge,” said the Lord. In short, let the bible do the judging.
Prior to this awakening, I had waned from talking about every day people (I had already associated gossip with demonic realm as a result of reading the book of Proverbs in the bible). But, I was quite content gossiping about stars, as if their celebrity shields them from having “feelings.” Again, this judgment came back to me in some form or fashion. I was woke! Even more, I was motivated to make the correction immediately.
The way I minimized this judgmental, self- righteous behavior was not to chime in during celebrity gossiping encounters (the same approach works for gossiping about people in general). Or, I would interrupt judgmental thoughts with thoughts of compassion. Oftentimes, I would think it’s none of your business.
I am a work in progress. We really do reap what we sow and sometimes our love ones reap what we sow. That’s not fair right? I agree but that’s another BLOG entry.