Pet Peeves

Got any pet peeves? I know I do. I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount recently where Jesus says, “Do not judge others and you will not be judged.” One of the major indictments against the Church—or Christians in general—is that they are judgmental. In other words, at least from the perspective of those who stand outside of faith, we are not safe people to be around.

I get it. Because even though I am a Christian and I represent the Church, I have been severely judged at times. It’s an awful feeling to be judged.

I’m getting better at not judging people, but I must admit it’s been a long, arduous process. I would have to say that judging people is one of the easiest things we can do. It requires no effort at all. We see someone do or say something that rubs us the wrong way, and immediately we make an assumption about them. Many times, we judge people based on our personal pet peeves.

Let’s say you are fanatical about keeping a clean house. You go to someone's home and things are messy—way below your white-glove standards—and you decide they are a slob and look down on them. You remember that Bible verse that says, "Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Oh wait a second—it actually doesn’t say that in the Bible. But it should, right?

It’s actually just your pet peeve.

When I’m standing in line at the bank and someone answers their cell phone and begins a conversation on speakerphone, I want to grab the phone out of their hands, throw it to the ground, and say, “What’s wrong with you?” Of course, the Bible doesn’t address people in banks speaking loudly on their cell phones. It’s my pet peeve—and although I don’t like it, it’s not a sin. And even if it were, who am I to judge them?

It’s been said that we tend to judge other people's weaknesses by our strengths. For example, if you are a very disciplined person, it’s easy to look down on people who aren’t. If you are punctual, it’s easy to judge people who are always running behind. The question is, what is your weakness? Everyone has weaknesses. How would you feel if someone pointed out your weaknesses just because they happened to be strong in that area of their life?

Here’s the other thing about judging: things are not always as they first appear.

Zach Zehnder, in his book The Red Letter Challenge, talks about a woman who years ago wrote to Ann Landers, a famous advice columnist. She said she had seen people buy “luxury” food items—like birthday cakes and shrimp—with food stamps. The writer said she thought people on welfare who treated themselves to such non-necessities were “lazy and wasteful.”

A few weeks later, this appeared in the Ann Landers column:
“I’m the woman who bought the $17 cake and paid for it with food stamps. I thought the woman in the store would burn a hole through me with her eyes. What she didn’t know is that the cake was for my little girl’s birthday. It will be her last. She has bone cancer and will probably be gone within six to eight months.”

The point is, we never know what people are dealing with. Maybe if we spent more time learning how to love and accept people—instead of holding them to our pet peeves standards—they would pay more attention to our Christian faith.

Stay close to Jesus,

Steve