The older I get, the more I realize how little I know. A perfect example is Church on the Street.

When my kids were grade school age, every now and then I would take them to Church on the Street. Church on the Street is exactly that: a church service held in a downtown park for those living on the streets. A message would be given by a local pastor followed by a free lunch and distribution of clothes and toiletries. I felt sorry for people who were in that situation, and I wanted to help. I wanted my kids to appreciate their cushy lives and to be thankful for their home, food, and warm beds. 

I learned that most of the people who came to this service were homeless due to their struggle with addiction. How awful! So even though I felt sympathy for them, I also believed it was pretty much their own fault that they were in the state they were in. As far as I was concerned, they had made some really bad choices. And if only they would be willing to exercise a little self-control, they could get themselves out.

How little did I know!

The sad truth is that just as people are born with different personalities and physical features, they are also born with different reactions to addictive substances. Some people have a genetic vulnerability to becoming addicted, and the exposure to a “pleasurable substance” quickly changes the wiring of their brains. Addiction has even been referred to as an “allergy” that some have to alcohol or drugs. Which is why some people can have a few drinks at a party with no issue, why some people can take pain meds with no problem, and why some people can dabble in pot and other drugs and be just fine. But some people will do these same things and end up living under a bridge. 

I didn’t understand that the man with a scraggly beard and tattered clothes was once a straight-A student and college athlete with a promising life ahead of him. I didn’t know that the young woman with missing teeth and a dirt-stained dress carrying a trash bag full of clothes came from a nice family and had once had a successful career. I couldn’t see that these forlorn and haggard-looking figures were once happy, thriving, talented, beautiful human beings, their lives stolen away by an awful disease.

Thanks to a daughter who suffered the same struggle, I now understand. Addiction is not a moral failure; it is a disorder of the brain, a disorder that often begins with someone battling depression, anxiety, or other internal struggles. Addiction is something that can sneak up on a hurting person unsuspectingly and beyond his or her control. 

Looking back, I realize how easy it was for me to look down on people struggling with addiction, and how quick I was to pass judgment when I didn’t truly understand. And this transfers to every area of life! Why is it so easy to feel judgment towards others?

Paul addresses this very issue when writing his letter to the Romans. “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” (vs 1)

This is a great reminder that when we look down on others, we are congratulating ourselves that we are not like them. But aren’t we? 

In the previous chapter, Paul had reminded the believers of their own unrighteousness. He says that the human race is, “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice…full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness… gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” 

Yikes. Without God, where would any of us be?

And Jesus asks us, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

What if rather than being quick to see other people’s faults, we were more open to searching our own hearts? What if we were less inclined to think we know, and more inclined to listen and learn? What if in every situation that we run across, we tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, knowing that everyone is doing the best they can with what they have been given? 

God, I know I have blinders on. I have planks in my eye that keep me from seeing reality or block me from showing love. Please help me to be open to listening and seeing the truth, and to not jump to conclusions. Help me to humbly realize that I don’t know everything.