I could never be judgmental of other people. I can say that coming from my own life experiences of people judging me, by what they think they see, not by the full picture, my story. Pastor Darren T. Peoples would have this saying, “I may have done what they say I did, but I am not who they say I am.” This saying has always been powerful to me. Sometimes being human in this world we neglect the spiritual and completely operate in the physical.
When you label people by observation sometimes this could be deceiving. This comes about when using the physical eyes to see things and place a label on it saying, “This is so.” While labeling maybe useful, we need to be very careful how we place labels on people. My favorite example to use is how scientist labels animals in the animal kingdom. Scientist label animals using several categories.
Kingdom
Pylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
They do so to eliminate confusion. When they see an animal that may appear to have similarities with another animal, they will know by digging deeper that although they look similar, they are not the same and are made up of different properties. This goes beyond what appears on the surface. Taking a look at a Koala Bear, Koalas are usually called, “Koala Bears.” At some point in time they received that label because they had some similarities to a bear, however they are not bears, and not even closely related to bears. They share some of the same class levels until they branch off into different areas that make them different. We are not scientists, but need to dig deeper to gain an understanding of one another as human beings. If we can give much thought to breaking an animal down so that you can see each animals’ individualities, why can’t we do the same for people? Why can’t we put that much energy in walking in another person’s shoes? Why don’t we try to figure out the whys? Maybe, because it is much easier to label and mislabel people than to get to know then and find out whom they really are.
Every poor person isn’t lazy and don’t want to work.
Everyone who has AIDS wasn’t being loose with their sex life
Not everyone who has cancer has it because they have smoked
Not everyone who has bad things happen to them done something to deserve it
We are so prone to be judgmental that we fail to see people as complete beings; Body, mind, and spirit. We are all connected. There isn’t a way we can escape sharing this Earthly space together and time with others. We should have the understanding that there is more to be seen than what is seen with the eyes. Everyone is deserving of a deeper look. We must get past mislabeling people. We must be patient and loving, because everyone struggles with something. No one is without fault. No one is flawless. Instead of tearing down each other, we should be building each other up., understanding our human conditions.
