There's a whole lot of judging going on in the world. It seems that humans have a built in sorting mechanism, and that mechanism is best at categorizing things and people into good or bad, beautiful or ugly, worthy or unworthy, pious or sinful, or any of a number of other categories. The world is not organized into these well-defined categories. It comes in multiple shades of every color, with sounds of different timbres, touch of every type of texture. Our judgement of what is good, of what is beautiful, of so many other things is personal, but it is also cultural. Our judgments are affected by our location, our experience, our personalities, our DNA, and countless other things.
We aren't even able to properly understand our own biases, although we do get better understanding when we try to examine those biases and how they affect our judgment of things, others, and ourselves. Those biases and our own judgements change so much over time that we should probably avoid hard and fast, unyielding views on most any topic. It's kind of like the saying about the weather in Tennessee, if you don't like it, just wait until tomorrow. It will be totally different.
As we walk through life, if our judgment is one thing today, it may be something totally different tomorrow because of experience, new information, or some other change in ourselves or our understanding.
I have found one particular judgement to be relatively consistent in my own life, unfortunately, and that is harsh judgment of myself. I know there are many who deal with the same thing. Sometimes it is overwhelming and unrelenting.
In my studies I learned about the different between guilt and shame. Guilt is the understanding that you have done something wrong. Shame happens when you think that you are wrong. We could slip into shame for any number of reasons. But living is hard when we look at mistakes or faults and think they define us.
If you look at yourself often and call yourself names, (stupid, ugly, worthless) know that this is not what God wants for you. God created you with God's own image. And you would never call God a bad name, right? Recognize in yourself that you are of God.
Yes, you are imperfect. Mistakes are made by the very best at any particular skill. No one is served by beating yourself up over a mistake. Let it go and do your best in the future, knowing that you'll make a mistake (or many) then, too.
Mistakes don't define you. God has defined you as beautiful, wonderful, worth loving and saving. Shouldn't that be enough for all of us to recognize our own worth?
Some of you may have read this post and wondered, but others like me know precisely where this is coming from. As I often tell the congregation I serve, I usually preach what I need to hear.
May the love of God surround you as you daily, moment by moment, choose to stop judging yourself. You are beautiful. You are wonderful. You are loved by a perfect and loving God. I'd say that makes you pretty awesome!
That's the view from where I stand today...
Pastor Chris
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