Our thoughts and actions are primarily based on our assumptions. We think that we are expert judges of a person just by looking at his/her outward appearance. We even presume that person’s character itself. Sadly most of us are wrong at our inference. We are mostly blinded by appearances.
When we encounter a person who is fair and handsome / beautiful, we presume he is a gentleman, while we might immediately conclude that an individual is a thief or a beggar or crooked one, because he looks shabby and distasteful. I suspect, our reactions are based on what we accept to be beautiful and ugly.
Our behaviour patterns change according to our own initial conclusions based on exteriors of a person. We receive one person pleasantly, because he is better looking; while we probably are rude to another who is scruffy. Our prejudices, miscalculations, quick judgements lead to blindness towards the true self an individual. We may not even consider the fact that a person is not what he appears to be. This misjudgement leads not only to ill-treatment of an innocent person but also diminishes our own personal value in the sight of that person. Our callousness in estimating a person by looks alone is blindness.
In 1884 a young man died, and after the funeral his grieving parents decided to establish a memorial to him. With that in mind they met Charles Eliot, president of Harvard University. Eliot received the unpretentious couple into his office and asked what he could do for them. After they expressed their desire to fund a memorial, Eliot impatiently said, "Perhaps you have in mind a scholarship." "We were thinking of something more substantial than that... perhaps a building," the woman replied. In a patronizing tone, Eliot brushed aside the idea as being too expensive and the couple departed. The next year, Eliot learned that this plain pair had gone elsewhere and established a $26 million memorial named Leland Stanford Junior University, better known today as Stanford! (Taken from Today in the Word, June 11, 1992.)
Judging people alone by appearance will cause a heart break for both parties, first to the one who was misjudged and then to the one who misjudged.
Hi anna,
ReplyDeleteI think “True self” is a hidden fact. Continually, we tend to perceive it thru sight rather than discovering it thru insight. I like your implied point where heart is inevitably driven by one’s own vision. So Blindness (to judge) is such a misery to his/her true-self.
The whole post hints the ‘beauty of inner-self’. Good one :)
I think sadly we tend to do that in our Churches too today. We are his children are supposed to reflect Him. But sadly we look at status, wealth, dress all externals when we welcome anyone be it in church or even when we meet them on our daily routine. How do we treat them. I guess if we look at all the people whom we meet or come across as God's created - the Bible so clearly puts it "whatsoever you do to the least of these my brethren you do it unto me" :) If I am a widow am looked down upon, treated differently, if I am a poor family ill treated by others or those I work with.. no matter what the work, nothing is below our dignity.... Paul says it so wonderfully - whatever you do , do it for the glory of God - so if I am polishing shoes, washing and cleaning floors, working in a Corporate, or a clerk in a Government office. I am working unto the Lord and not unto man. When I realize that I am here to bring Glory to God and to fulfill His purpose, I guess that's when things will change
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