I had a pastor in St. Louis named Josh.
If you’ve been around the church for any period of time, you start to realize it’s full of sinners. Sinners get into disagreements, kerfuffles, quandries, and the like. In St. Louis, we found there was enough sin to go around (ours included).
Well, a pastor gets paid to pretty much tell you things you already know. I get paid to tell students things they don’t already know. This is easy. Telling someone something they already know is harder, and a good pastor never tires of it.
What did we already know? We already knew to believe the best in other Christians. This doesn’t mean excusing their sin. But it does mean attempting to understand things from their point of view.
Once you start judging the heart (good luck with that!), then you are ready to project onto a person what you think they will do. It will never happen in your head the way it happens in real life.
Josh told us all this in so many words. His phrasing though really stuck: “You can expect other Christians to behave like Christians.”
Of course, there’s a wrong way to take this. He meant it the right way.
If you go to another Christian and ask forgiveness, you will get it. If you apologize, you will be heard (and probably apologized to). If you are kind, you will receive kindness in return.
Life has drastically improved since we don’t judge other people’s motives as much anymore. You begin to move toward people instead of away from them.
A buddy once told me: “Every time I try to judge someone’s motives, I find that I was wrong about the whole thing.”
That wasn’t Josh, but it was in keeping with his counsel. Thanks Josh; we needed it at the time, and we remind ourselves of it regularly.
Mr. Klunick Tutoring 