I’m supposed to be working on a different project right now, but my heart is somewhere else. This is what I’m learning. I have been directed to not judge anyone….ever. Passing judgement is not my role….my job….my mission….my burden. That’s not to say that I haven’t pointed a finger of condemnation or used what God says as a club against someone. More often most of my judgements happen internally. For a long time I believed that the movement of God….the voice of God…the revelation of God in my life revealed what I thought was at least generally right and true for everyone. For example, there are parts of the Bible that seem at least to me to apply to everyone….everywhere. However, most people don’t recognize or believe that the Bible (in whatever version) has any authority over them. It is a very difficult thing to share with others….people I love….what God has done….what he has said…..what he has revealed to me as it concerns how to live. I think it’s fair to say that the people I love receive what I say about such things as judgement if they aren’t in agreement or in compliance with how God has directed me. It’s hard to speak truth with love’s voice. To further complicate matters because of what I believe about certain things it becomes necessary to establish boundaries. I have been down this road and revisiting it only reminds me of frustration and difficulty. It’s a hard thing to swallow when I must accept and acknowledge that the movement, the voice, and the revelation of God in my life is…just…my…opinion…to others. Once I got past the disappointment that my experience with God is of little value to others….just my opinion, I learned something else. I am free. I’m free to love without qualification…without condition….without judgement…no matter what.

Having said all of that don’t over-complicate it. My three old granddaughter is running in circles around my house…in socks…on hardwood floors. Being a kindly and loving grandfather I tell her that she should not run because she is going to slip and hurt herself. Now that she has fallen, she is a little hurt but she is also a bit angry….at me. She sits there next to the sofa on the floor giving me what I have aptly named “the stink eye.”

“I’m mad at you!”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to build a castle out of the pillows from the couch.”

“Why?”

“So you can’t look at me.”

Having constructed her castle made of sofa pillows I tell her that I can still see her.

“Don’t look at me.”

“Ok…I won’t look at you or talk to you.”

I go back to doing this….whatever this is…and she asks me from behind her pillow walls to talk to her. I invite her to leave her pillow castle and to come and sit on my lap.

“Maybe running around the house isn’t such a good idea.”

“I hurt myself….I shouldn’t run….I wanna get down now.”

“Ok.”

She gets down from my lap…..and starts running around my house again. I still love her. The running around has nothing to do with it. I just don’t want her to be hurt.

I think that captures my life before God. It’s not very complicated.