No Prejudice and I Love Him for It

Its a sunny North Dakota day, no breeze, just the hum of cars and people out and about. I'm in my chevy pickup waiting at a red light. Ed Sheeran is playing on my radio, and I put my window down and lose myself alittle in the music. Then something else... guitar. I tilt my head back and look out of the window. On the grassy curb to my left is a man. He's playing the guitar, singing his heart out. Leaned up against his leg is a sign. "Anything helps". You know the scene, you've seen the sign before. And I catch myself thinking, "I Wonder what crime he committed? I Wonder what terrible decision he made to get himself here? The last thing our community needs-homeless on the streets." Seriously, that's my thoughts.

I'm at a friends house, helping with some housework. As I dig through some trash and magazines, I find something I wasn't supposed to find. Suddenly my friends name becomes marred in my mind. "Wow, so this is who she really is. This is what she hides."

I'm at work on my lunch break scrolling through Facebook while I eat my sandwich. I pause to read a post. Someone has poured their heart into a very raw, and honest discussion and expressed their opinion. "Why would they say that? I can't believe someone would believe something so crazy. How can people discourse in such a way on Facebook?"

Someone has wronged me. Deeply hurt me. "How can someone be that evil? How can someone be so heartless?"

And that's me... That's my thoughts, honestly. What are your thoughts, honestly?
But what if I put away my attitude. What if I wasn't quick to judge. What if I realized that everyone I encounter is as loved, and forgiven by God as I am. What if I realize that I only see half of their story, a story that is in a lot of ways just like my own...

A homeless man playing guitar on the street, swaying his head back and forth as he sings. I wonder if he took music lessons. He pauses to retrieve his water bottle from the ground. As he looks up, our eyes meet and suddenly I realize how wrong I am. He must love music just like me. He must have a family, like me. He must have dreams and feelings, like me.

I discover my friend's secret sins: buried under a pile of trash and magazines. Quickly I look away. "Lindsey?", she calls. "Coming!", I respond as I toss what I had found in the trash. She's loved by God, like me. She's messed up, like me. God forgives her, just like He forgives me. How many times have I practiced the same sins, hidden the same things.

I'm offended by something someone wrote on Facebook: it's my dad. Another post, I roll my eyes. But then I realize how much I dearly love him, how much I greatly admire him for genuinely being himself. He has different opinions. But, he deserves the freedom to express how he really feels, just like I do. He is learning and discovering new things and ways of thinking, just like I am and I love him just as he is. I'm just like him after all.

Someone wrongs me, I'm left alone crying in my car. I wonder if someone hurt them, just like they've now hurt me. How many times have I cruelly inflicted this same pain.

 That homeless man? Made in God's image, unique and gifted by God himself. My friend caught in sin? Still a child made after God's own heart and created for good. My dad? Deeply loved by God, given so many abilities and strengths from God. And you know, as I write this, I realize even more how wrong I am in casting judgment.

We are all in God's image. Homeless, sinner, father, homosexual, single mother, addict, prisoner, student, pastor-all of us. We are all the same, and I have no excuse. I only condemn myself when I am so quick to judge, because God shows no prejudice, and I love him for it.