Appearances

Appearances may be deceiving.

Do not praise individuals for their good looks, or loathe anyone because of appearance alone. The bee is small among flying creatures, but what it produces is the best of sweet things. Do not boast about wearing fine clothes, and do not exalt yourself when you are honored; for the works of the Lord are wonderful, and his works are concealed from humankind. Many kings have had to sit on the ground, but one who was never thought of has worn a crown. Many rulers have been utterly disgraced, and the honored have been handed over to others. Do not find fault before you investigate; examine first, and then criticize. Do not answer before you listen, and do not interrupt when another is speaking. Do not argue about a matter that does not concern you, and do not sit with sinners when they judge a case. My child, do not busy yourself with many matters; if you multiply activities, you will not be held blameless. If you pursue, you will not overtake, and by fleeing you will not escape. There are those who work and struggle and hurry, but are so much the more in want. There are others who are slow and need help, who lack strength and abound in poverty; but the eyes of the Lord look kindly upon them; he lifts them out of their lowly condition and raises up their heads to the amazement of many. Good things and bad, life and death, poverty and wealth, come from the Lord. The Lord's gift remains with the devout, and his favor brings lasting success. One becomes rich through diligence and self-denial, and the reward allotted to him is this: when he says, 'I have found rest, and now I shall feast on my goods!' he does not know how long it will be until he leaves them to others and dies.  Stand by your agreement and attend to it, and grow old in your work. - Sirach 11:2-20

It is easy to judge based on what we see or hear.

We all have expectations, don't we?  We assume we know something about someone by the way they appear to us.

If someone approaches us for help and they appear as though they are not in need, we might ignore them, or worse, judge them harshly.

But what do we know about their situation?

Sirach's message for us is about us, not about them.  How we live our lives, what we attend to and how we deal with others matter.

We have no way of knowing how long the good times will last in our lives, nor do we know what will come next.

So, why become distracted by others?  Why live in constant judgment of the ways others live?

Each day, we give out food to anyone who comes. Anyone who can benefit from what we have to offer can come.

It saves us a lot of aggravation and work to just accept those who come and offer what we have to all.

There are many who ask how we know they truly have a need, and that is a valid question, if there is not an abundance to offer.

If someone offered you a meal would you turn it down because you have the means to make one yourself?  Or would you accept it graciously and be thankful?

Every little bit helps.  

So why judge?  What good does it do?  And what if your judgment is wrong?  What if the person in fine clothes has not eaten in two days?

More to come...