*Blank*

You wanna know a thought that has struck me of recent? I am just one away...
One too terrible a day with one too terrible a thought entertained and I could...blank. Fill in that blank with whatever you want. Truly. I am human. So are you. For that reason alone blank can be the very worst thought imaginable or the very best- it's full of potential, possibility. Have you ever humbled yourself enough to look at the "worst person" on the face of this planet and say, "If I had been where you were, thought what you thought and felt what you felt...I could be your replacement?"

If you're being honest with yourself, it's quite possible the thought never plucked your heartstrings.

Why have I allowed myself to loose the realization of my humanness? You know the part of me that is utterly flawed? [What does this word flaw even mean?  Flaw: noun: 3. a crack, break, or breach.] Maybe, what I mean to say is, how can I, with my incomplete (yet totally understood) knowledge of the brokenness I consist of, the breakage in my soul, or better yet, the breach in my intended nature surfaced with the moment of my first breath, how can I, with all this proof of my flawed-ness look at another with eyes glazed in judgement?

Jesus was perfect- human, yet no soul flaws. For the sinners, the flawed ones, that crossed his path, the thought he extended was compassion. He was moved to compassion. And he had compassion on them.  He had compassion for these people. He had compassion on them, had compassion on them, compassion on them, compassion on them. Jesus was so perfect, he could/can/did/does overcome the blank I easily fall into and you easily judge or the blank you fall into and I easily judge. Funny how both of us are sinning in that last sentence; Jesus is the only blameless Lamb.

Quick recap: I (a sinner) cross another sinners path, my first flawed thought would be to judge, to lack understanding. Jesus (opposite a sinner) crosses sinners' paths and has compassion.
[boy, are we a messed up mess or what?]

I write this post because (A) I am convicted and (B) I have been watching countless and differing documentaries that share something in common: whenever the title Christian comes up, the word, by definition, in association is judgmental. [The second is hypocrite, but that's for another time.]

I plead with the true believers, reach deep into your heart and start unfolding the (metaphorical) slips of paper which have blank written on it, take a cold hard look at them. Without Jesus, this is who you are. It is ONLY because of Jesus you are no longer defined by a terrible word(s) that shakes the very corridors of your heart with shame, guilt and fear. You are (re)defined. But to those who are still known only by past/current/future mistakes, I implore us, as Christians, to look with eyes washed in compassion to replace the glaze of judgement. Compassion was the tagline in Jesus' ministry. It should be the same in ours.