Book By Its Cover

'In junior high there was a kid who would always run home everyday the moment he got off the bus.

We would laugh at him everyday. We didn't know he ran home everyday because he wanted to make sure his sister hadn't killed himself while he was at school.

One day he missed school. A week after he came back. He stopped running.' Heartbreaking.

How often have you quickly passed a judgment? There is absolutely no one in this world who preserves the right to judge another. When Jesus asked the sinless to cast the first stone not one can find the true heart to do so in humility. We judge people everyday, we judge people without even noticing; 'Oh he's gaining weight?' 'I never knew you were like that?'

We need to walk a mile in someone else's shoes before we can come close to understanding how much pain another has suffered. We all have different abilities and strengths to train ourselves to carry varied burdens. We arrogantly stare puzzled as someone cannot lift a burden that we perceive to be so light. The burdens are subjective to what we have previously experienced, so when we do decide to wear another's shoes, we suddenly crumple at the sudden downpour of weight. It's like a wall being battered by sledgehammer followed by a sudden wrecking ball - something that we've never witnessed before. The growth we feel is procured as to how we think we have grown but in the end we can never grow to our full. There is an endless sea of different life possibilities and we can't interact with all of them. We promptly face with what's thrown at us and barely recover to start again with an altered impact every time when another trial speeds our way.


"If you judge people, you have no time to love them."

-Mother Theresa


Someone once said: 'You can never hate someone once you hear their story', I think it was the director of Pixar. It's as simple as that. You can never walk on the same road that someone has travelled and encounter the same trials. Even if those same trials hit you, they will be allocated differently as to how much stress they put on our emotional joints; and whether we just raze under the weight or unhinge to stand tall and firm.

So how often have you quickly passed a judgment? Keep asking yourself that. Everyone is 'beautifully and wonderfully made' by God and everyone was deemed worth saving. 'Love one another as I have loved you.' Embrace Jesus' command to love one another by not judging. He loved us regardless of iniquities and our weaknesses and we should do the same to our fellow humans. If we keep focusing on the goodness of a person, soon enough we will not dwell on the bad. Stop judging because you wouldn't want someone else to judge you on your failures either.

- 'I had a dream. We all had this dream.
I see two children squat by the edge of a playground slide, their gleaming smiles illuminated by a vermilion sunset. They sit in blissful serenity, their joyous mouths chattering like a steam train chugging over timber tracks; spirits enveloped in an ocean of peace. They laugh together with a dreamlike inevitability. From afar they share a feint orange shade in their complexion - exempt of stratification, judgment and not a trace of discrimination is present in their little hearts. You see one child is white and the other a contrasting black. You can even differentiate them through a black and white analog camera, yet in my eyes they are the same. Their little eyes reflect sparkles of hope and even the cool breeze whispers peace around them. Men were created equal. Men always were in my dreams.'