Change my heart, O God

I heard a great sermon today about committment. My Dad preached it.

It seemed an appropriate topic seeing since my idea of what a Christian's committment looks like has recently gotten me labeled as judgemental.

I don't really think of myself as judgemental, but really I guess I am about some things.

I tend to doubt people who give the church a bad name.

I tend to doubt people who pray as the Pharisee prayed, "Lord I am grateful that I am not like this sinner," when they still smell like last night's party. Are they really committed to holiness?

I tend to doubt people who can't get past publicly praying,"Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner" because they get a different kind of attention. These people come in two types: 1) people who get a lot of mileage out of their constant state of crisis and 2) people who feel pious because others get to watch the breast-beating.

I tend to doubt people who remain silent when someone else is denigrating their faith. To me, to be silent is to assent.

I tend to doubt people who think their church is the ONLY one who has it right. Nobody has it completely right. Different churches have different emphases. They speak to different needs in different seasons of one's life.

I tend to doubt people who think their church has it COMPLETELY right. (See above)

I tend to doubt Christians who are meaner than the average unchurched person.

I tend to doubt people who are too proud to admit that someone else might have some worship traditions of value that are different from mine. "Liturgical churches can't be led by the Spirit because everyone is just reading" vs. "Evangelicals have no sense of history and tradition and therefore have no value".

And I just don't trust people who type e-mails in all caps, all lower case or no punctuation, or who can't spell.

And before anyone starts saying that I'm not supposed to judge others, I get judged as well.

My mom thinks your Christianity is shaky if you take any alcohol, including real wine in the communion cup.

My parents friends think my Christianity is shaky because I joined AN EPISCOPAL CHURCH, FOR PETE'S SAKE.

People from the charismatic, nondenominational church we used to attend think, well, I don't know what they think, because they don't call. But when we attended, people who didn't even know me offered to pray over me and lay hands on me when I asked hard theological questions that didn't lend themselves to bumper sticker length answers.

My coworkers think I'm snobby and unfriendly and exclude me because I choose not to join in the gossip, back-stabbing, and whatever else.

And those are just a few of the ones I know about.

Now, the crucial element, I believe, is that everyone makes assumptions about other people all the time. It's how we act on those assumptions that makes it judgement. I think instead of judgement, we should use the idea of condemnation. Am I condemning someone because of these things, or am I genuinely trying to show the Love of Christ to them anyway? That's how Christ works in people. As I act out the love of Christ to them, God will change my heart.