Month: July 2022

Thought For The Day

Today’s Thought For The Day follows the guise of “Judge not, lest thee be judged” mentality, one I wrote about in yesterday’s Daily Reflection where a barista was unfairly and wrongly judged and deemed in the process to be in the need of being saved…

“If you always judge people by their appearance, you’ll miss out on meeting and knowing some pretty amazing people.” (Unknown)

“When you judge someone on their appearance or first words, you miss the opportunity to understand another human being.” (Leon Brown)

“God doesn’t see thing the way you seem them. People judge outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” (Ann Voskamp)

“If you judge after appearances, you will continue to be enslaved by the evidence of your senses.” (Neville Goddard)

“We judge people by their appearance so quickly, and we form opinions about people, compartmentalize people, and think we know who they are. But if you sit down and talk with someone for more than 10 minutes, you’ll find something in common, no doubt whatsoever.” (Paul Blackthorne)

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Daily Reflection

“Judge not according to appearance…” (John 7:24)

I was in one of my favorite coffee shop hangouts recently, one where I know most of the baristas there, when I saw a proselytizing action that bothered me immensely, one solely based upon appearance. There, at the coffee shop, what unfolded before me was a young female customer handing over to a barista a few dollars stuffed into a small pamphlet. What was the pamphlet? One of those Christian conversion pamphlets I often see in bathrooms of public places that focus in on being saved.

Why this bothered me so immensely was the action was based solely upon this barista’s appearance. How did the barista look? She had bright green hair, black mascara that spread out from the sides of her eyes in triangles, and a nose ring. What I found even more frustrating was that this barista wasn’t even the person who waited upon this customer. It was simply an action that was based upon a judgment from what the customer saw with their eyes. And when that customer left, I watched her smile and glow as if she had done the most amazing action to someone she judged really needed it.

Here’s what she didn’t know. The girl with the green hair is a pretty awesome person. She loves to dance in the store to 80’s music. She greets every customer with an amazing smile and a friendly hello. And always, and I mean always, makes sure that every drink she crafts is done to perfection. She truly exudes a joy in what she does that I would go so far as to say already represents the joy of Christ. So why did she need a Christian pamphlet? She didn’t. Yet this is what I struggle often with people who proselytize their religion. They often try to save others they judge need it, who don’t need saving. They claim themselves as knowing more than the person they feel they need to save.

What I’ve come to learn in my walk with Christ, one that isn’t a religious walk and more a spiritual one, is that people will ask me when they are interested in my faith, not the other way around. I don’t believe it’s my purpose to ever judge someone else needs Jesus, or Buddha, or Mohammad, or anyone. It’s my job to not judge another on what they need at all, especially in their faith walk. It’s my job to simply be unconditionally loving and treat everyone as my equal.

Nevertheless, after that customer left that day, I talked to this barista and learned this regularly occurred in her life, which I find sad because in my book, she already represents the Jesus I know, someone who stands apart from the masses and does their best to love everyone, unconditionally. Did she need Jesus? No, but ultimately, maybe it was the customer who needed to get in touch with a little more of that…

Dear God, help me never to judge others by appearance or deem who needs you and who doesn’t. Help me instead to just love others unconditionally, just as you do of me…

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson

Silly Joke Friday

Silly Joke #1

When the printouts from John’s laser printer began to grow faint, he called a local repair shop where a friendly man informed me that the printer probably just needed to be cleaned and the cartridge changed. Because the store charged $50 for the task, he told John he’d be better off reading the printer’s manual and doing the job himself. Pleasantly surprised by his candor, John asked, “Does your boss know that you are discouraging business?” “Actually it’s my boss’s idea,” the employee replied sheepishly. “We usually make more money on repairs if we let people try to fix things themselves first…”

Silly Joke #2

An interim school superintendent, speaking at a city-wide PTA luncheon, assured members that he was always happy to hear from them about problems. He told them, “You can call me anytime, day or night, at this number…” He then read the number aloud for everyone to write down. Suddenly there was a cry from his assistant superintendent. “Hey,” the assistance superintendent exclaimed, “that’s MY number!!!”

Silly Joke #3

Customer: (to bartender): “My wife and I just got into a knock down, drag out fight!”
Bartender: “What happened?”
Customer: “We weren’t seeing eye to eye about her weight gain, but when it was all over, she came crawling back to me on her hands and knees!”
Bartender: “Wow! Really?”
Customer: “Yeah, she told me to come out from under the bed!”

Bonus Silly Joke

Little Johnny is all grown up and still continues to say the most inappropriate of things at the most inappropriate of times. “I hope you like your birthday gift!”, Little Johnny says handing a gift box to his girlfriend on her birthday. She gleefully opens it up and then says sounding disappointed, “It’s a sexy pair of lingerie, thanks, but, I think this is more of a gift for you than it is for me Johnny.” Little Johnny then says, “Well, if you want to get technical about it, it was originally a gift for my last girlfriend.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson