Shame

I realized today how quick I am to judge other people I think have nasty, bad habits.  I saw someone smoking as he walked past me on the sidewalk, and my first thought was:  "Why would you do that to yourself?!"  (You know: cancer, yellow teeth, smell, and all the other ill effects of cigarette smoke!)

We do this all the time, don't we?!  Judge other people.  Because they smoke.  Because they weigh too much.  Because they have tattoos.  Because they didn't signal before they turned in front of us.  Because they have an accent.  Because they mixed a blue shirt with brown pants.  Whatever!

Why are we so quick to judge?!  Are we that hard up for affirmation that we have to put someone else downto feel superior ... so we can feel better about ourselves?  Because, really?  Am I ANY better?  It's not smoking, but I have my own bad habits that have their own negative consequences.  Until a few months ago, I drank way too much Mt. Dew.  (And only by the grace of God am I past spending all the money and pumping my body with all the caffeine and sugar and acids and other junk you get when you 'Do the Dew.')  I still have this bad habit of checking my phone every time I hear an email come in ... even if that's while my wife is talking to me.  (And I have to ask her to repeat what she just said because I was too rude to focus on her the whole time in the first place.)  And I have so many other habits that range from annoying to rude to disruptive.

The point is sort of along the lines of Jesus' question:  "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matthew 7:3).  Why do I so quickly jump to judgment of others and their habits ... and give myself a pass, rationalizing that I'm just human afterall?

Whenever I'm tempted to place myself above someone else, I remember Paul's words of 1 Corinthians 15:  "But by the grace of God I am what I am."  I am simply the worst of all sinners ... and if not for Jesus, I would be nothing.  Thank you, God, for making me something special, only in Him!!