Condemning myself
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. – Romans 2:1
Winter weather is both good and bad for my business. With every new snow storm my phone rings with people eager to get out of the cold. But the snow also causes delays and cancelations for those already scheduled to travel.
A few days after Christmas I had a family scheduled to travel on a holiday trip together before their son left for the military. On that day the airport was fogged in and then freezing rain caused the airport to close completely.
Frantically I worked to reschedule them and the soonest departure would be three days later. I worked with the vendors to reschedule the resort which required a 6 hour hold time on the phone. The reservation was changed, but in reconfirming with the resort the agent had booked the wrong dates.
Again I was on hold, sending emails and in desparation contacted my sales representative to see if she could help. When she answered the phone she said, “I’m on vacation and will be back in my office on Tuesday. I’ll talk to you then about this. I deserve time off too.” Wow!!
I was able to get the reservation corrected in time for my client’s flight and their trip went perfectly from there, but the shocking response from the sales reprentative stayed on my mind. As I prayed for peace the Lord lovingly reminded me, that at times, my attitude is the same as hers.
Many times my mind has thought the same things when I’ve received after-hours calls or didn’t want to be bothered with issues. While I’ve never used those exact words, I have mentally shouted them.
The bible study notes for today’s verse reinforced the correction that God was giving me. “We need to speak out against sin, but we must humbly remember our own weaknesses. Often the sins we notice most clearly in others are the ones that have taken root in us. If we look closely at ourselves, we may find that we are committing the same sins in more acceptable forms.” I was justifying my wrong attitude because I thought the words but didn’t speak them.
In the Sermon on The Mount, Jesus said that anger is the same thing as murder. Our thoughts matter whether spoken or not and need to be taken captive so that they can be corrected and brought in line with what would honor God.
In His kindness and mercy, God holds back judgment, giving us time to turn from our sins. I’m grateful that He pointed out my sins so that I could repent and correct my actions. I pray that I will also show the same kindness and mercy to others.
