Who said you were the judge

I was reminded of an important lesson yesterday when I was chatting with my cousin.  She reminded me that I am not in the position of judging others.  This point was confirmed during my daily meditation this morning, so I figured it would be a good topic to share.

One day I was asking my friend whether he wanted to get a tattoo.  He told me he was considering either praying hands or a cross.  Both I thought were interesting decisions for someone who didn't regularly attend church nor I thought who read the bible.  I guess I said something to this effect, and he said that he prays regularly and the subject was dropped.  But still his hypothetical choice for a tattoo lingered in my mind, why would someone one not strong in their faith get such a tattoo?  I pondered this question with my cousin, who I often come to with questions of religion.  My cousin, thank goodness, put me in my place.  She reminded me that one's relationship with God is individual and that I don't know what the relationship is like between my friend and God.  I can't judge someone's relationship based on my own.

Really, she gave me the reminder that I needed.  I have to remember that even though I am excited about my journey and I want everyone to share and grow alongside me that that is not going to happen.  As I work on myself, I have to refrain from judging others that are not in my same situation.  I don't think that I do it out of hatred or wanting to be better than someone, I just am enjoying the ride so much that I want others to following in my joy.

However, some people judge others out of a bad place.  The recent arguments about gay marriage and even abortion invoke such negative spirit.  Many people are judging gay people or people who want abortions as if they are evil people and less than a person.  While we can disagree with the sin, we are supposed to still love the person.  But the truth is, it is not our place to judge others anyway.  Why is this?  Because we are all inherently imperfect by nature.  No matter how hard we try, no matter how many of the rules we follow, we will never be perfect.  As humans, we tend to think that some sins are worse than others.  The truth is there is no hierarchy to sinning.  You can't sin a little bit.  Gluttony is on the same level as murder.  Any sin is looked at the same no matter how much that you try to justify it to yourself.  So to me it has always been crazy to hear the stories when people kill abortion doctors.  Or others have affairs while they are married, but still have staunch views against gay marriage.  No one is above sinning, and no one but God is really the judge.

So in the future I need to check myself.  Who said I was the judge?  No one.