Well, the summer is progressing rather rapidly. It's hard to believe that we are in the second half of August already. I've spent the last 8 weeks at Napa State Hospital enjoying a variety of experiences and learning an awful lot about myself in the process. My most recent learning experience is really something that I've been thinking about for most of the summer. It's the simple concept that is enclosed in the title of this blog, get to know me before you judge me.
The idea started back in the fall when my wife experienced Berkeley's "Critical Mass" when she was driving our Chevy Trailblazer through the city and was unable to proceed through an intersection because 50 bicyclists militantly took over the intersection yelling "park your car and ride a bike" and her response was, "I can't very well ride my bike 40 miles each day to where I work."
It seems like a simple and obvious comment, but the reality is that we don't practice it, any of us. I admit that I might be one of the worst offenders of this concept, but it is something that I'm working on. When I commute the 38 miles from Berkeley to Napa I find plenty of drivers that bring out my rage and my judgement of "you don't know how to drive!" But what do I know? Maybe if I got to understand who they are and what their issues are I would not curse them out for driving 55 mph in the left lane of the 65 mph freeway.
The reality of the statement however is this, we tend to assume we know about people from just seeing them. In other words, we judge the book by its cover. We have preconceived notions about people, how they should act and what they should do, because of limited information that we have about them.
Where this really came home for me was last week when I was talking with one of the individuals at Napa State, we were talking about his acclimating to Napa State and in the conversation he shared with me that he is working on his anti-relapse plan. In that discussion he shared how he prays regularly for his victims, he prays that God will heal them and allow them to live a "normal" life and be able to get beyond the fact that he sexually abused them.
I could sense in our conversation that this was a man who was remorseful for what he had done and was willing to pay his price to society. But, I sensed that there was more going on. What I sensed was his need for reassurance that God loves him and forgives him for what he did. At that point, I realized what Christ's love is really about ...
Christ calls us to look into the eyes of someone who sexually molested his nieces and say, "God forgives you and God Loves you. And because God loves you, I love you." It's not easy, but it's what we are called to do, not to judge people, but to love them.
No comments:
Post a Comment