I'll be honest, I would happily have taken a pass on gleaning examples to use in my blog post this morning! Yup, it was one of those kind of days, when everything that could go wrong, tried very hard to go wrong!
The down hill slide started as Rob and I pulled up to the bus stop only to see the tail lights as the bus pulled away. The bus was there 10 minutes early. To say I was not a happy camper would be an understatement! Seriously, the driver couldn't look in his rear view mirror and see us pulling up??? Wait a minute, that's a rather judgemental statement on my part, he has a bus load of children to keep track of! Oops! Then Rob suggested that I drive him to the Elementary school and he would catch the bus there! Excellent, problem solved! We got half way there when Rob realized that he had forgotten some papers that he had to turn in today! Seriously, couldn't he have gotten all of his stuff together last night???? Oh, wait, that's a judgement call isn't it-he had a boatload of homework. My bad. So we turned around and came back home so he could get his papers. Did I mention that I was driving the "it's o.k. to drive to the bus stop but really this is the in case of emergency" vehicle? This particular Jeep has had some issues with overheating and it's gotten worse recently! The drive in to Washington is measured in miles, not blocks, so needless to say I was more than a little nervous about getting stranded on the side of the road like Kenny did just last week! I was doing a whole lot of praying and watching that temperature gauge closely! As we were coming around the blind corner on our private road we met a car-on our side of the road! Fortunately, it's gravel so you can't go very fast but we came within inches of being hit! Seriously, she couldn't drive on her own side of the road??? Wait a minute, she is in a low riding car and the other side is pretty rutted, maybe she was worried about taking out the bottom side of her car. Guess I shouldn't judge too quickly!
And thus, this morning, I got my very own life lesson about the hazards of judging others too quickly! Here I was all set to talk about the opening of the Martin Luther King memorial and how wonderful I think it is and how this is a modern day reminder not to judge others based on one thing and one thing only! It is a good reminder and I am so thankful that there is a wonderful memorial to this powerful minister and modern day inspiration. I think what made him so profound was his ability to inspire faith and hope in others. He didn't view himself as a leader, he viewed himself as a servant and that combination is rather rare these days! In the whole scheme of things he was a very unlikely choice to be a leader of a movement!
Which brings me around to Jesus and his choice of Disciples as described in the book of Mark. Look at who he chose-fisherman and a tax collector! Seriously???? No credentials, no training, no indication that they could be anything more than what they were already! Yet, he handpicked these men to become the messengers of the good news! Jesus didn't judge on who these men were, or where they came from or what they did for a living. He apparently saw something more-a servant's heart and untapped potential! Honestly, how many of us would have made the choices that Jesus made based on our usual way of judging people? If this morning is any indication, I would have to honestly confess that I probably would not have picked these men. I would have been too busy making snap judgements rather than looking beyond and seeing the potential. Methinks, it's time I take the plank out of my eye and stop worrying about the speck in someone else's eye!
I have a long way to go on my walk of faith! Thank goodness the Lord is patient! Lord, forgive my snap judgements and stupidity and help me overcome my shortcomings! It is painfully obvious that the problem is me!
And by the way, I made the trip in to town and back without the Jeep overheating. Thank goodness! There but by the grace of God go I. And some days, I'm not all that graceful!
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