Why Do We Make It So Complicated?

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Last week, I visited a person I've known a long time. As I listened to her speak, I studied her face, and it reminded me of something. 

When I first met this lady, she actually frightened me a little. I was young at the time, and she was more of a rough type than I was used to. She said exactly what she thought and if she didn't like something, you knew it. Her face was not harsh, but it was not a motherly kind of face like I was used to. She often smelt of cigarette smoke. I shied away from her.

To me, her face was scary and her person was one I didn't want to get to know. I intended to keep my safe distance.

Fast-forward many years, and now I see this lady regularly. And only last week, did I stop to think of how my perception of her has changed so drastically.

Her face was no longer intimidating (perhaps also because I did not have to crane my neck to look at her anymore) and I was at ease beside her. When I listened to her speak, her chattering was endearing, and her face soft and tender with age. 

And I knew that over the past ten years, the person who had changed more was not her, but I. When I understood this, I realized that the same face which I had thought scary years before, was now kind and beautiful to me, because I had come to know the person behind it. 

And I thought, how often do I do that in life.

I look at someone, and decide they are too intimidating, too frightening, too rough. I decide I cannot talk to them and could never get to know them because they are just not "my type". And the knowledge that in one glance I have the presumption and self-righteousness to think I can sum up one person's soul is so convicting for me.

For too long, I have looked at people with glasses made of the world's standards, silhouetted with my own judgement, and decided if I would accept them or not. But the more I come to know God's heart, the more I realize that couldn't be further from the way God looks at them, the way He looks at us, the way He looks at me.

Man looks at the outside, but God looks at the heart. Too many times, Gabby has looked at the outside, and failed to look at the heart. And now I stand convicted.

I do not want to judge someone with a glance any longer. I do not want to make a prejudice against someone and never give them room to show me otherwise. I do not want to choose who I will get to know merely based on outward appearances and perceptions.

Oh Father, please, help me to see people the same way you would have me see them; the same way YOU see them. Father, give me the heart to never write someone off, but to extend grace and acceptance. If I ever misjudge a person, let me know them on a deeper level and show me my ignorance and pride.

May I take the words of Billy Graham to heart, and live them out knowing,

"It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge, and my job to love."

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You have given us a simple commandment - that we would love one another. Why do we make it so complicated?