I try my very hardest to not be hypocritical or judgemental, to not be what people expect from Christians, to simply love and I truly do find myself to be accepting in most situations. I want people to look at me and accept me, to know that I am a Christian and not judge me for that (however I know it will happen, and am prepared), and I would expect that no matter what my beliefs were. Tonight I found my "line in the sand" so to speak, the place where I had to work to not judge, where God had to say to me, "Katie, it is not your place to judge this person. The time for judgement will come, and the job will be Mine, and Mine alone." Along with this message came God's hand on my shoulder, telling me to not walk away,, to not stop praying.
Of course, this story probably makes little sense if you do not know the back story. So here it is. Tonight I was at a Prayer/Positive Thoughts Vigil for someone I've never met. I had been told he wasn't a spiritual man, and had accepted it and was prepared. I was not, however, prepared for one of his dear friends to pull out a book that was very important to the man being prayed for. A book I never thought I would hear words from. That book was the Satanic Bible. The moment she said she would be reading from it my mom and I exchanged looks. I whispered, "That's a twist I wasn't expecting." We politely listened as I silently began to judge. I wasn't very far into my judgement before God spoke the words from the first paragraph to me. He put on my heart the desire to pray for this man and all of the people surrounding me that agreed with his beliefs, to pray that they would find the Grace of God, that they would be saved. God reminded me that no one is ever too far gone to be saved, not even a man fighting for his life.
Praying for a precious baby that has been fighting for his life is so easy. He's innocent, there's nothing to judge. Praying for a man that worships, or at least is in high agreement, with everything opposite of what I believe is anything but easy. I find this sad. I have no right to decide who lives or dies, who goes up or who goes down. There is no one unworthy of my prayers, and it saddens me that I ever thought there could be. I'm sure this won't be the last time that this happens to me, but I hope that it has opened my eyes to work harder on being the person God wants me to be.
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." - Matthew 7:1
"Therefore let us not judge one another, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way." - Romans 14:13
