Go Ahead and Judge Me...Seriously

When does a catch phrase go from being catchy to being part of a culture's vernacular? 

Quick side thought...why do you feel so smart when you use the word vernacular?

Anyways, the past four years there has been a phrase that has crept into many of my friends daily word usage and I haven't even been able to avoid it.

Don't...judge...me.

Yes, this popular retort to a friends seemingly critical interpretation of the speaker's story, action, or way of life has inspired me to write after a mini hiatus.

I say this all the time. Whether it is a defense mechanism to let people know right away that they aren't going to be able to change my behavior,whether it is a secret admission of guilt without actually admitting your guilty, or whether I say it so much it's just a natural response this phrase has several different meanings in those three little words. But, I hate to break to everyone out there reading (in my wildest dreams there's like 2 of you) this phrase needs to be tweaked a little bit.

The phrase should say "Go ahead, Judge me." Now, you may be thinking that when this phrase is uttered it is dripping with sarcasm, but in all actuality I am claiming that this sentence should be used in full truth. 

Now this thought has been stewing in my mind for a while, back in college (which was truly a long time ago) I said Don't Judge Me to my roommate senior year and he looked right back at me and said "Too late, I've already judged you, talked to God, I'm right, so how are you gonna fix it?"

Then I metaphorically rubbed my jaw to make sure it was still then from the verbal smack in the face I received, and frankly deserved. This incident was refreshed in my mind on Sunday when my Associated Pastor frankly reminded me of simply thing, God has called us to Holiness. 

The never ending pursuit of forgetting ourself and "to be made new in the attitude of your mind, and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph. 4:23-24)

That may mean that sometime your friend take's a good hard look at you and says "hey your screwing up and it's hurting you," this was really hard for me to hear sometime but the fact of the matter is it keeps us from becoming stagnant and settling.

Settling, in fact, is quite possible the most dreadful word in the english language unless it used to describe a board game and has the word Catan after it.

Settling makes me think of a couple other phrases that make me want to throw up...they include

"I do what I want," what they really mean is "I'm selfish and forget anything you say,"

"I am who I am," what they really mean is "I'm stubborn and lazy,"

"That's just who they are," what they really mean is"The speaker is too scared of that person to actually give them any useful information."

Do you get how settling isn't good, and more importantly don't you see that without judgment we would be a society of settlers? Now, what if I would tell you there is a way to Judge correctly, because judging people for one's personal benefit is not what I am talking about here.

Judging and encouraging are very similar and may even be the same thing.

If you listen closely, you just heard Evangelicals across America gasp.

Now, I am an Evangelical but let's be clear the gift of encouragement or encouraging one another should not be confused with flattery. Encouragement is speaking truth into one's life whether that be to reinforce positive behavior they are already displaying or to truly look someone in the eye and point out a negative behavior in their life and be ready to help them fix it.

The second half of that sounds like what the world is calling Judgment. This is how to be judged, judge by speaking truth into someone's life and show them how to fix it and make sure they understand how crucial it is to developing themselves as a person.

If this type of judgment starts sweeping the nation like it's previously mentioned anti statement, then sign me up, I want some judgement.