Hang ‘em from the neck, till his feet stop twitchin’!

“And besides, you have judged many throughout your life. You have judged the actions and motivations of others, as if you somehow knew what those were in truth. You have judged the color of skin and body language and body odor. You have judged history and relationships. You have even judged the value of a person’s life by the quality of your concept of beauty. By all accounts, you are quite well-practiced in the activity.” – William Young, The Shack

I really kinda like the old saying, and in fact have used it MANY times, “Who died and left YOU in charge?” It really sums up a lot of feelings and ideas very succinctly. After all, who ARE you to try and be my boss, or my judge, or really my anything?

It seems that as humans, we have this need and great desire to judge…well…damn near everything. We judge each other and anyone else that wanders into our sights. We judge events, nature, and even animals. But really, what in the hell are we doing? Who are we to judge ANYONE or ANYTHING else?

Really…what are our qualifications for judging anyone? Let’s see…we are just as screwed up as anyone else…our perceptions are skewed by our previous experiences and current circumstances…and in all honesty, we really don’t KNOW anyone else to a level that would allow us to make ANY judgment about them.

And yet we persist in insisting on judging.

What’s wrong with us? Why do we insist on categorizing and judging everything in our lives? If we are so unequipped and incapable of doing it right?


“Judging requires that you think yourself superior over the one you judge.” – William Young, The Shack


You think, maybe, that we, as humans, are really all control freaks inside? That maybe we all feel so lost inside that we NEED to have that feeling of being better than someone else? That rather than empathizing with another’s pain in spite of their bad choices, we feel better when we cast them down and put ourselves above them?

I think that it’s high time that we get off our egocentric, arrogant, self-righteous podium and realize that, in reality, we are probably no better than those that we judge. Granted, we might not make the same choices that they have, but then, we also haven’t lived their life and suffered through their experiences. We bear our own scars and wounds. And we make our own wrong choices.

Realize something with me here…there is no grading system for wrong choices. My wrong choices aren’t in some way “better” than yours. True, they are different and come with different consequences, but they are still WRONG. My choices may not land me in jail, but that don’t necessarily make me a better person than someone whose choices do.

OK…you know what? I’m going to give you homework today. :-) HA HA! You thought this was just going to be a quick read and then you can go on and forget all about it. Surprise!!!

Homework…Take one day, just one, and don’t judge a single thing. Not one single person gets a judgment. Not the guy that cuts you off in traffic, or the slow person in the Walmart checkout line. NOT ONE SINGLE JUDGMENT. And here’s the kicker…you have to keep trying this until you go the entire day. No mistakes, not one. If you judge…you start again tomorrow.

Now, I’m going to give you a little hint on how to actually accomplish this assignment.

For your day, you need to have no expectations of anyone. Not one. This is the ONLY way to make it work. You see, we live our lives CHOCK FULL of expectations, for ourselves, for others, even for the THINGS that exist around us. We expect other people to behave a certain way. We expect the world to react a certain way. And when they don’t, we stand firm in the “Truth” that the way we wanted things is the way everything should be. Guess what?? You’re wrong. And from that wrong assumption, you judge the offender. However, if you live without expecting anything from anyone or anything, then you have no preconceived idea about how they SHOULD react. Instead, you are free to simply accept however they DO react. And if you want to know the real “Truth”…your life will be happier because of it.

I hope that we meet along down the road…but I’ll still love you, even if you decide to go another way. :-)