Mack placed not before the Judge, Mack becoming the one asked to make decisions about who should live, who should die, who did right, who is wrong.... when given the absolute authority to make the call, Mack backs away!! God is not primarily in the judging business; God is in the healing business. How often have you envisioned God as the arbiter, the one who holds the scales in His/Her hands expecting to present the already known verdict? Do you fear judgement?! Most of us tend to see ourselves in one of two extremes; either filled with a self righteousness and high opinion of self or laden with self loathing and deprecation. And, I find it interesting that for Jesus in the scriptures there is not much middle ground either. The gospels all speak of the goats and sheep, the "for me or against me" mode, the weeds and the fruit giving gardens. Mack is discovering that our capacity to judge is flawed, our values are too skewed by the aforementioned extremes to adequately serve as judge in any case!
Now, how do we deal with discernment? Is a judgement an absolute, or is placed in the moment? Discernment tends to deconstruct for the sake of clarity and identify what is "helpful" and what is "destructive ". What is the difference for you? Judgement demands all the facts and does seem to be rather final, but discernment is supposed to inform and affect how we respond to circumstances as disciples.
Ah, the freedom issue... "You demanded independence and are now angry at the one who loved you enough to give it to you." (p. 164) That independence seems to be one heck of a catch 22... it is what makes us potentially our best, and yet allows us to be the worst. My devotion this morning included a reading by CS Lewis. Lewis stated that there is a special center we all have, and our lives are either moving that center of being toward the heavenly or the hellish. We are either growing toward the good, or we are heading toward the evil. We are either defending our self, or we are becoming more selfless... we are doing the right things for the right reasons, or we are stumbling around trying to convince ourselves that we are doing the right things and yet the reasons are very debilitating and destructive.
"Judgement is not about destruction, it is about setting things right" (p.169) How can we become better equipped to effectively assess the world and those around us? How can judging be a sinful endeavor? Have you ever judged thinking that you have all the information and yet later found out you were lacking a great deal of the necessary facts?
Do you think Jesus expects us to discern what is good for ours? How are you aware of the hurt and anguish that surrounds you, and how do you address it?
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