The Freedom of Non-Judgment

Luke 6:37-38 - "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

From Henri Nouwen’s Here and Now, Living in the Spirit:

“Only when we claim the love of God, the love that transcends all judgments, can we overcome all fear of judgments. When we have become completely free from the need to judge others, we will also become completely free from the fear of being judged.

The experience of not having to judge cannot coexist with the fear of being judged, and the experience of God’s non-judgmental love cannot coexist with a need to judge others. That’s what Jesus means when he says: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged.’ The connection between the two sides of this sentence is the same connection that exists between the love of God and the love of neighbor. they cannot be separated. This connection, however, is not simply a logical connection that can be thought through. It is first and foremost a connection of the heart that is made in prayer.”

The Waning Days of Summer

I haven’t blogged since for a while. We went on an extended vacation, part of which was visiting our friends in Pennsylvania. On that trip, we spent 2 days in Washington D.C. You can see my boys (above) in front of the reflecting pool with the Washington Monument in the distance. As usual, summer went by very fast. We had a great time resting, playing and traveling.

School starts next week so it will be back to the “regular” schedule. I hope, as I do at the end of every summer, that I will be able to take my inner pace back into the more structured schedule.