Judge me Judge you

Judging is part of our nature.  It is a necessary evil, but it doesn't have to be necessarily evil.   

We seem to have two opposite traits that coexist.  On the one hand as applied to driving we think, do NOT cross into my lane as I drive.  Do NOT cut me off, know where you're going when you're on the road.  Drive fast enough to stay out of my way.  Hurry up with the light turns green and don't slow me down.  WAIT for me to turn and slow down as you approach the intersection that I'm trying to make my left turn.  Heck, we can get into an elevator and have someone get on just a floor above us and get off a floor below us and think, "what the heck, you're waisting my time... I got things to do!"  On the other hand, although we may think we're walking perfectly in sync with perfection, we probably aren't. 

Studies show that the thing that makes us most angry and lash out at others harshly permeate within ourselves AND to the degree that we are outraged is the degree of our own blindness to our internal fault.  Actually, I made that up.  I don't know if there are studies or not.  I do think there's an interesting analogy there.  There are some that teach that when we see something that's driving us wacko about someone else, we should probably begin by looking at ourselves first.  Stop and ask yourself, this behavior that I cannot stand in this person, does it actually live IN me??  Am I doing this in a way that's visible to others and invisible to me?  It would seem that it's a worthy question.  Furthermore, if you do find it in yourself and you can fight through the correction of that, it may make you better at confronting the person when you've finally overcome it.

And so, finding a fault in another may be discovering the "treasure" that's in yourself.  There are exceptions I'm sure, but, if you think about it, the one person you have the most control over is yourself.  At the least, it'll make us a better judge, for we all seek mercy for ourselves and justice on others.  Were it to be reversed, it could be frightening.  Maybe a better way to say it would be, let us offer mercy to those that we would normally judge. Perhaps by granting the mercy to those who deserve justice, we'll be in a better place to receive mercy from someone who's judging us.