Something Worth Writing

Does anyone else ever experience the sensation of time slowing down? Why is it that, at one moment, time can seem to be moving as such an intense pace with no opportunity to catch a breath and the next moment make fossilized snails look like speed demons?

I'm not complaining about the extra time to stop and think, I'm just asking why time, while it's supposed to be regulated and measured by specific intervals, seems so fluid and inconsistent? It's questions like these that keep me wondering about the important things in life. Are there secrets about our very existence that have yet to be answered? Is the mystery simply another exciting aspect of our existence or a bizarre perception meant to distract our thoughts from what's really important?

I guess in the grand scheme of things, time and contemplating why it's perceived differently is of no great importance. Time has been around since man has been able to experience and catalogue it. We do not master time, just the tallying off of minutes, hours, days, months, years and eons. 

More important are the things that happen within time. Time is more the canvas on which history is painted. 

I've spent some time pouring through the historical books of the Bible. I love the history recorded there. Only the most important things were chronicled (due to the fact that ink wouldn't be wasted on frivolous or irrelevant details) so that means everything included is profoundly significant. 

What I found that is interesting is that the Bible spares no punches in its recording. Great people with great moments are recorded accurately without bias, and so are the blunders and screw-ups. The failings of those in the biblical record are just as significant to history as the amazing successes and victories! This shows that even the heroes of history are human and susceptible to the same pitfalls that plague us today. The significance is that life goes on (sometimes) after monumental failure. 

Perhaps the most significant thing about this history is how the Bible shows that a perfect God can so profoundly use such imperfect people to accomplish, well, ANYTHING!

Something that bothers me with the perceptions people have about Christianity is that a person's individual failings somehow affect the perfection of God. "Oh, you messed up! That proves God doesn't exist!" An extreme statement, to be sure. But also fundamentally incorrect. Me messing up only serves testament to my own fallibility being human. It also shows how much more perfect my God must be in order to use me according to His will. Throughout the Bible, God uses, harlots, cowards, outcasts, bastard children, the runts of the family, and the most unlikely, uncouth, unqualified candidates as part of the master plan leading towards redemption. 

Yes, so many of these people had severe problems and most ALL of them messed up and were disobedient or just plain stupid in some way. But that fact didn't disqualify them from being part of the plan. Some were even forgiven. While God is always grieved when people make mistakes, that doesn't mean they are worthless or unusable. 

It's because of this very principle that I am continually outraged by the general misquotation of the passage, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." (Matt 7:1) Generally people throw this in others' faces whenever they encounter someone who tries to peg them or tell them that they are wrong...

First off, I agree with the principle of Scripture. Unfortunately, this passage doesn't mean what MOST people think it does. 

As Christians, we are not supposed to pass judgment, this is true. But what does it mean to pass judgement? When a judge passes judgement, it's not a verdict of guilty or innocent, it's literally the sentencing. Judgement has been passed, the sentence will be carried out. Christians are not supposed to be about stoning people because of their guilt or to avenge God's laws. (God very specifically says, "That's MY job!" Except, of course, when God TELLS us to carry out judgment - i.e. capital punishment) 

So what does that mean for the people who hold up this passage as a shield against the alleged judgmental attitude of Christians, parents, religious people, etc...? 

It means that they have to rethink what they do and who they are. Hey, it's like the idiom - "Don't just a book by its cover." This is another phrase taken completely out of context. First off, a book's cover is not indicative of the contents. A worn cover, ugly and deteriorating, may hold some of the most precious words ever penned. Or, a new, flashy cover may hold absolute junk. That's the point of the idiom. Don't let the wear and tear, or flashiness distract you from considering the content of a book. We ARE supposed to judge books by the content, good or bad. 

We DO judge a book based on the title. The title carries with it pertinent information regarding the content of the book which offers up at least a little bit of criteria for judgement. The title communicates, in part, the contents by which we CAN judge, or in other words, make a determination regarding the character inside. 

So... when people say "Don't judge me by what I do or how I look!" I have a hard time validating their request. Because what you do and what you choose to wear is intended to communicate something about your contents. The major argument in schools since the invention of uniforms has been "let us wear what we want! Clothes are a form of personal expression!" Personal expression. It's a form of communication intended to express the contents of a person's personality and character. 

When people tell me "you can't judge a book by it's cover" I usually respond "but you're supposed to judge a fruit by its skin." People reveal more about their character than they realize. Someone hiding behind this passage or misappropriated idioms is nothing more than the knee-jerk hesitancy to be held accountable for their actions and attitudes. It's just like saying "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, but says it's an elephant, BELIEVE IT!" Sorry, no such luck. 

My point is that judging is an important part of accountability. I don't judge in the sense of doling out sentencing or making people pay for their shortcomings. As I said, that's God's job and he'll take care of that in his own time. But people cannot hide who they are or demand that discerning people not call attitudes or actions out for what they are. Wise people must make discerning judgments when it comes to looking at the character of a person. 

Why people don't want to be defined for who and what they are? It's simple; people want to lie to themselves and tell themselves "I'm not THAT bad." They don't want to be held to anyone else's expectations or to an objective reality. They want to be able to say "this is me! and that's that!" without someone challenging who they are. However, a wise philosopher had once said "The unexamined life is not worth living." And if one were to deny people the discernment to identify their weaknesses and disavow any criticism, then the only thing keeping them alive is the lies they tell themselves. So be it. 

I don't write to resolve anything today; just to get these thoughts out so they stop rattling around my brain. Thanks for reading!