Dr. Rick Mandl - October 15, 2020
Judge Not!
Devotional Manuscript: Judge Not??
Message by Dr. Rick Mandl, October 15, 2020
Hey church family, consider the following situation... Imagine that you are in a shopping center parking lot. As you head to the store, you see someone pull into one of the parking spaces, marked handicap parking only. Much to your surprise a lively and pretty young lady who looks to be about 19 or 20 years old, jumps out of the car and heads to the store. She obviously is the picture of health. No crutches. No cane. No limp. What would you do? Ignore it? Call the police? Confront her? Here’s what one person did. They left a note. It read. . . . “Shame on you, you are NOT handicapped. You have taken a space that could have been used by an actually handicapped person. You are a selfish young lady.”
Of course, this actually happened to Emelie Crecco. When she returned to the car after shopping she found the note and she said “I was LIVID.” Why? Because this 20-year-old young lady has cystic fibrosis. Emelie shared her story on Facebook with these details. “CF affects the lungs (as one of many organs in the body) because of this I have a handicapped sticker. She said “I’m not one to “abuse” the sticker, meaning I use it when I’m having a “bad day” (some days it’s a little harder to breathe). Today was HOT so I needed to use my sticker. I was running errands all day around my town; I pulled into a handicapped spot and continued into the store.” When she returned she found the note. Then Emelie says, “They clearly saw me walk out of my car, why not approach me? Not all handicaps are visible.” Then she adds, “I would love for you to share this story. It would help spread awareness for CF, (and) it would help open people’s minds to what handicapped really is.”
Emelie’s story is an example of the problem that we as humans have of incorrectly judging someone’s appearance. Or motives. Snap judgments based on appearance and circumstantial evidence can lead to false conclusions. There is an example of this in the book of Acts. The Bible tells about a time when the apostle Paul was on the voyage to Rome and a Typhoon shipwrecked their vessel on the island of Malta. The weather was cold and rainy and so Paul proceeded to build a fire. “As Paul gathered an armful of sticks and was laying them on the fire, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, bit him on the hand. 4 The people of the island saw it hanging from his hand and said to each other, “A murderer, no doubt! Though he escaped the sea, justice will not permit him to live.” That was their judgement, based on what they were seeing. But the story continues and tells us . . . “But Paul shook off the snake into the fire and was unharmed. The people waited for him to swell up or suddenly drop dead. But when they had waited a long time and saw that he wasn’t harmed, they changed their minds and decided he was a god.”
First they judged Paul to be a murderer. Then they changed their minds and judged him to be a god. They were wrong on both counts. What happened to them ought to serve as a warning to us. Be careful of drawing conclusions about others based on your limited knowledge. A person’s appearance. Their facial expression. Their clothes. A tattoo. Piercings. Their skin color. Their ancestry. Or even their mood on any given occasion.
“We take it for granted we know the whole story,” “We judge a book by its cover and read what we want between the lines.” The next time you’re ready to judge based on appearance remember Emelie Crecco. And if you do happen to see her pulling into a handicapped spot, you might want to smile and say “Hi.” She’s probably having a rough day, and could probably use your encouragement.
Recorded in Los Angeles, CA.
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