While I was on my mission, I met a lot of different people. And one lesson I learned over and over again is that you can't judge people. They always surprise you, and most of the time your judgements are wrong.
One such instance really made me think. My companion and I were going door-to-door with a college-age girl in the ward we were serving in. We walked up to a house, but only made it halfway up the front walkway when suddenly a very angry lady started yelling at us from an upstairs window. I don't know if it was a bad day for her, or she had bad experience in the past with evangelical proselyters, but she was rude. She yelled at us for a good minute as we turned around and walked quickly back down her driveway and on to the next house. We all walked in stunned silence for a little bit, then brushed it off with comments about how some people are. As we stood at the next door waiting for someone to answer our knock, I noticed a man walking toward us from the house with the angry lady. He was quite a sight - he walked slowly because he had two boots on his feet, and both of his ankles were still yellow from the paint they put on your skin when you have surgery. His slow gait and slight limp gave the appearance that each step was painful to take. We walked over and he said, "I just wanted to apologize for my wife. You guys are just out doing your job and what she did was uncalled for. I'm an atheist, so don't bother sharing your stuff with me. They're all Catholics in there, so who knows about them. But I just wanted to come and say sorry for her."
The apology was simple. But one phrase stuck out to me: I'm an atheist.
Isn't it ironic that a Christian woman's atheist husband came and apologized for her not treating us in a very Christian-like manner? That really struck me. As a missionary, you're out to help people come closer unto Christ. That requires a belief that what you are teaching people is a great way, the best way you've found for yourself, to accomplish that. But that man taught me a lot about what it meant to be Christlike, and he doesn't even believe in Christ.
So what? You can learn from everyone. Sometimes, people surprise you. Everyone has different viewpoints, and just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean that they are a bad person and it definitely doesn't make you better than them. The more we take the time to remember that, the more we learn and the more friends we end up having. Each one of us is a Child of God. We all have that divine potential and we all have the responsibility to help one another reach that.
This is a really great post about love, Lexy! I believe non judgement is the foundation of love. People tend to use their standards and values to make judgements about others. However, it's difficult to judge someone when you don't know everything about a person. Learning to accept someone unconditionally is pure love!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this post Lexy. What you said is so true. I had similar experiences in my mission and they often got me thinking about some of the things you wrote about. Sometimes it is easy for people to call themselves Christian, yet forget what that really means. I think that sometimes even happens to us if we lose our temper, treat somebody rudely, etc. It is important not to judge and to treat people how Christ would want us to treat them. That is what makes us true Christians.
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