March 8, 2011 Tuesday: Toward a nonjudgmental life

Towards a Nonjudgmental life

One of the hardest spiritual tasks is to live without
prejudices.  Sometimes we aren't even aware how deeply
rooted our prejudices are.  We may think that we relate to
people who are different from us in colour, religion, sexual
orientation, or lifestyle as equals, but in concrete
circumstances our spontaneous thoughts, uncensored words,
and knee-jerk reactions often reveal that our prejudices are
still there.

Strangers, people different than we are, stir up fear,
discomfort, suspicion, and hostility.  They make us lose our
sense of security just by being "other."  Only when we fully
claim that God loves us in an unconditional way and look at
"those other persons" as equally loved can we begin to
discover that the great variety in being human is an
expression of the immense richness of God's heart.  Then the
need to prejudge people can gradually disappear.

-Henri Nouwen