Judgment Rush

Scripture

'He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.’ ‘Consider carefully what you hear,’ he continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. ' (Mark 4:21-24 NIVUK) 

Judgment Rush

“Don’t do anything that will be in the Globe & Mail tomorrow morning” was the key moral guide among business types in my early days of Touchstone. That’s the least of our worries now – anything we may have done might show up on social media at a moment’s notice.

Ontario’s political picture was turned on its head and judgment rushed from us all at the various players in the story. We can get a rush from judging and it can become addictive. Something about judgement feeds our ego while numbing awareness of our own predisposition to failures of other sorts. 

Jesus’ words about disclosure often are used to describe sudden embarrassing revelations like this. But I think he is really advocating for truth, justice and mercy as embodied by his life and work. The things that make us healthy as humans get hidden under a bucket of media madness.

Sexual misconduct is a grievous wound in our culture and sadly has been forever. The addictive rush to judge may keep us from creating ways for victims to find their voice and confront the perpetrators without it being a brutal legal or media fight.

 A Prayer for Today

O God, the noise can be deafening and feed my addiction to judgment. Make me an advocate for the wounded and for justice that restores the health of our community. Help me to live transparently, addicted to your love which seeks the broken and failing to heal and forgive.…. For Jesus’ sake