The way I think about people has a direct effect on my joy, peace and own fulfillment. I spent an entire week just being critical and judgmental of people in my life. I can always point out the faults and shortcomings in others and by the end of this past week God decided to point out that this is exactly what I have been doing. This was the reason why I was getting all worked up for no good reason. Those closest too me never see to wonder how I can get worked up over hypothetical situations, but in all honesty, I think we can all do this to an extent – I just tend to do it out loud more than others. So how does judging others connect to anxious hypothetical? Well, let me elaborate.

Ish43: 18 (The Msg) Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.

One barrier that keeps me from thinking about people the way

Jesus did is my past experiences. Past experiences with different kinds of people can shape how I enter into new relationships and interactions. In defense of my heart, I can become particularly critical or suspicious of those around me resulting in me running hypothetical scenarios through my head. If I can prove that the people currently entering my life are like those ‘other’ people I can protect myself from being hurt again and keep them at a distance and society often backs me in supporting stereotypes so there is a high probability that I will be right in my assumption. In this way I also manage to not trust friends or allow new friendships to develop. I have seen this in my work and personal relationships. Being hurt by past work situations has made me more suspicious of the people I work with presently. In getting to know new people I have been meeting I can also pass judgment prematurely. My past experiences can feed my prejudices, stereo types and presumptions preventing me from loving people the way Jesus loves and from sharing Him with them.

This attitude also gives Satan a foothold to puff me up. In this mindset I can easily place myself in a position to look down on others or think myself better than others. If I am ‘better than’ someone that makes me too good to serve them or give to them. I’m too good to serve my house-mates because I’ve taken out the trash 3 times this week already so I’m not gona’ do it again as than they will expect me to pick up after them all the time. I won’t do something at work that I see as being ‘beneath me’ or not in my job description because than I will be taken advantage of.

Matthew 7:5 (The Msg) It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

The Message version of this scripture helps me to look at myself first and remember that as I am judging and measuring others up they too are doing the same to me. Neither myself or the other person doing the measuring is in the right, despite the fact that we may be completely right in some of our assumptions, it doesn’t matter, we are wrong to assume in the first place.

Romans 12:1-21(The Msg) 1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life--your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life--and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Jesus died for that person who I am critical of, the one who gets on my nerves, the one I don’t understand and the one I can’t stand. Not only that but by giving into the past I can allow this act of faithlessness to steal what God has in store for the future. I can miss out on being used by Him, miss out on touching others lives as well as them touching mine, miss out on His blessings because of actions fueled by my suspicious or judgmental thinking. It’s not always about some great bond or connection, others motives won't always be clear or good, we will not click with everyone, heck there will be many a day we won’t feel like we are clicking with God or understand His motives but we keep going because we fix our attention on Him and we hold on to what is promised and through this type of faith he is able to bring out the best in us, despite us. So we keep fighting our own hypothetical because we know that God will blow them out with His truth.