What You Realize When It’s YOU That’s Being Judged

WHEN it’s you that’s on the rack, and the screws of condemnation are being tightened surely though slowly, you know one thing: people should only judge when they know enough to understand, then they would empathize and no longer judge.

So rarely do any of us know anything like all the information, therefore we cannot understand, and to empathize is but a panacea.

So rarely are we in the position to assess adequately or judge properly, but we are human, and that inclines us toward having our opinion. We are bound to act off whatever information we do have, whether it’s sufficient or correct or not. So many injustices ensue. But we have our view. And the expression of that view is just one easy unconscious step to take.

What we realize when it’s us who’s being judged is how unfair it is. Another person has developed a view of us or our situation, and we’ve got no recourse to challenge their view.

Finally, as the product of being judged, we discover a blessing. It is good to be judged; to experience injustice. It’s better for our mind to consider it a blessing than a curse.

Why is it a blessing? For the simple fact that we learn empathy for others who have been judged and condemned; whether they’ve been rightly judged or condemned or not. The blessing is we too have sat in the seat of injustice — as Jesus did. Again, whether we deserve the view people have of us or not, that view, having been judged or condemned, is unfortunate. It’s sad. It’s a horrible shame that people have their view and it won’t easily be shifted.

Even though being judged and/or condemned is painful, it is God’s blessing to experience and endure it, because empathy is piqued and nurtured and matured — if we don’t continue to resent it. If we see the purpose in the pain is to teach and grow us.

Only when we’re judged and condemned are we able to feel the loneliness that Christ felt. It is blessed to know that Christ knows how we feel. We’re growing in His empathy.

The outcome of our empathy is a sympathy for others and their situations that overrides the callousness of judgment and condemnation. We actively seek to build others up rather than be tempted to tear them down.