grace

“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.  Nobody knows but Jesus.”

                                                                   ~~old African American spiritual

Sunday morning church.  A few, a hundred, or maybe even thousands of people sitting together in one room—each with a different story to tell and each with a different path traveled.  A man sits alone in the back row because he doesn’t want anyone to see the tears appear now and then.  A woman sings along with the worship songs, her face luminous with joy.  What has brought the man to be downtrodden?  What has the woman navigated through to be able to sing with such exultation?

It occurred to me, while sitting in the service one week, that no one really knows everything that has happened in my life to bring me to the place where I am.  And, in the same way—I don’t know the whole story of that person sitting next to me.  It’s so easy to look on the outside of a person’s life and assume so many things—good or bad.  We can become judgmental of why people do what they do without having all the facts.  Every journey is different.  Think about it—no two lives can be compared equally.  There are just too many variables with backgrounds, personalities, childhood influences, experiences, etc.  During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was very clear regarding our assessment of other people’s lives:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  (Matthew 7:1, NIV)

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