Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister.
Romans 14:13 (NIV)
Quit Sizing Each Other Up
Stop passing judgment on one another. In its place Paul gives the Romans one decision to make, and he asks them to make it in advance: not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. They’re arguing about what may be eaten, both sides are sure, and he takes the ruling out of their hands and leaves each of them answerable to God.
The crew cuts greenhouse glass before light, when the plant is cold and nothing has moved yet. Two men work the long table. One has been cutting for twenty-six years and talks the whole shift, and the other came over from the loading dock in February and hasn’t finished a sentence in front of him yet. The older one scores a sheet in one pass and breaks it over the bar without looking down. The younger one measures, then scores, then checks the score against the tape before he breaks, and that costs him about four minutes a sheet. The older one has opinions about the four minutes and says them, and the younger one measures twice anyway.
Paul’s request is that each of the Romans decide, once, that nothing they do will end up lying in the path of a brother or sister. They can go on disagreeing about the food while they do it, because he never asks them to settle that.
I don’t know where the line falls between watching out for the people close to me and sizing them up. From the inside they feel like the same act of paying attention, and I’ve caught myself in the middle of one, honestly unsure which it was.
Whatever the older man thinks about four wasted minutes, the younger one’s hands are learning in the only order hands learn in. An opinion said across a cold table before six in the morning lands in the path of a man who is already trying.
The older one scores a sheet and the break runs out past his mark, and the whole thing goes into the cullet bin. He looks at the bin for a second. Then he takes the tape off his belt and holds it out to the younger man, and he keeps his arm out there until the younger man takes it from him.
A Prayer to Remember
God, I had people figured out this week before they finished talking, and I was comfortable about it. Show me what I’ve been leaving in the path of the ones closest to me. Forgive me for the mornings I’ve made heavier. There’s one decision in front of me, and I’d like to make it today and be done deciding it.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
