A Fresh Start and a Delayed Response

When I started this blog, I had visions of an ongoing conversation that would stimulate the development of faith and a sense of the holy in our lives. As time went on and it became clear that my original hope was probably not going to materialize in the time frame I had in mind, I became discouraged with the process and the original vision. Without intending to do so or even realizing at the time that I was doing so, I let the blog idea lie dormant. Imagine my thoughts when I realized how long it had been since I posted anything to the blog, and even more that no one had contacted me to say "why are you not posting to your blog?"

So on this first day of 2010, which is not the beginning of a new decade (contrary to popular media) but is instead the last year of the first decade of the 21st century* I find myself faced with a couple of choices. Either I end this effort and concede failure; or I decide to continue on and use it to sort out where my own faith journey is taking me. I'm still musing on that one.

This morning I discovered that someone had posted a comment to my last entry, and I had not seen it. My apologies for not responding to what I believe is a very valid question. As a child of God and a human being, I believe I have been given a potential for discernment, that I am called upon to decide what is right and true and to make distinctions between good and appropriate behavior compared to bad and inappropriate (often evil behavior). So I find myself judging others all the time. The scriptures call us to avoid judging others. So I am faced with a conundrum. As a part of my nature, I necessarily make judgments. As a tenet of my faith, I am constrained from judging.

For me, the resolution has to do with the distinction between judgment as discernment and judgment as condemnation. When I decide that another person's actions are wrong, I am judging their behavior. When I judge that person as wrong, I am condemning a child of God, which is not my right. That leaves me, of course, with the awesome responsibility of monitoring my own thoughts, attitudes and actions toward others; and seeking God's forgiveness for those times when I have stepped over that line.

The ultimate truth in this is that we are all responsible to our Creator for the way in which we have honored or dishonored this gift of life with which we have been blessed. I trust that God's grace is stronger than my human frailty and that, if I let the Spirit guide me, I can continue to grow as a child of God in relation to my brothers and sisters.

God bless us all in everything that lies before us in this new year.

*Okay, so I am a purist, but I still believe decades go from 1 to 10. The year 2000 was actually the end of a ten-year span, at least in our human efforts to sort and number time. 2001 began a new decade and a new century.