As I lived my day to day life back home, it would be easy to notice different areas of my life where I would make assumptions of other people (age, favorite sport, political party, or religious belief, etc.). Assumptions are normal and a part of life- it is when this assumption leads you to view the person in a different or negative way that it becomes a judgement. I will not say that I have walked this entire race without judgement, that would be a lie. This blog is about the usefulness of assumptions, the difference between assumptions and judgement, and how my assumptions of others have changed in this time.
Assumptions are awesome and something that we all do, whether we realize it or not. Sometimes we assume that the food we have been served will be good or not, based on what we’ve eaten in the past. We assume we will like a book based on our favorite genres or the name of the author. More specifically, for relevance within the race, we may assume a taxi car is safe based on the condition of the car and the wording they use, or we may assume that raw chicken served on the side of the road isn’t safe based on past illnesses and general health understanding. Assumptions were even helpful in our time in Guatemala. Almost everywhere we walked, we would hear bus and van drivers yell “Missiones!” letting us know that they could tell by our skin color, obviously American outfits, and direction we were walking, that we were missionaries working with the missionary base in the area and that our base was on their route. This may seem racist or offensive, but they said it with no judgement or disrespect, rather just a logical assumption and a desire to help us find a ride and make money for their business. Consequently, transportation was never hard to find.
As I stated earlier, the issue comes when a natural assumption becomes a judgement, and the world is plagued with judgements. Unfortunately, the church is often no different. Judgements outside of the church are often just more obvious. For example, judgements on the value of an individual person can often be based on where they live, the education they’ve received, the color of their skin, or the money in their bank account. Each of these factors differ by person and their is no harm in noticing that, but determining that person’s value on these factors is sinful and not Christ-like. These judgements are commonplace and often talked about as bad within the church, and rightfully so. Although these assumptions can work their way into your or my local community of believers, some sneakier assumptions work their way into the Church. The first of these that I noticed within myself is the idea that the broken, poor, and hurting people that God called us to minister to are of any less value. Obviously I never meant to assume something like this but it can be so easy as a missionary. We hear “people in need” and our materialistic minds assume that this is more physical than spiritual and that we are somehow not in need based on our material wealth or physics health. As Jesus demonstrated in Luke 5 when he forgives the sins of the paralytic man rather than only healing the physical ailment, He sees spiritual death or life as greater than any material or physical quality. We as a Church should see our neighbor in the suburbs that doesn’t know Christ just as “in need” as those living in shacks in third-world countries and those of us that are in Christ should see ourselves as SAVED by grace, not entitled by religion.
I fully believe what I stated earlier, that everyone lives with assumptions and I believe as followers fo Christ, the goal is not removal of assumptions, but a renewing of these assumptions. We should learn to assume like Christ. Christ was full of assumptions, but His were drastically different than the majority of ours. Christ walked in constant relationship with His Heavenly Father and focused on things not of this world, and his assumptions followed suit. Where you or I may assume someone is wise based on an education, Christ sees the heart and knows that wisdom comes only from the fear of the Lord (proverbs 1,3,8) and that earthly wisdom is vanity if not used for the Kingdom of God. Where you or I may assume someone just lives in poverty and struggle, Christ may see loving sons and daughters of His walking in obedience to His will that didn’t involve making lots of money. Obviously we can’t know all of these qualities of the heart or label fruit directly to obedience. We can make assumptions of people that are true and consistent of every person. Every human has value. Equal value. Christ died to save every single human. The billionaire in America is worth no more than the drug addict on the streets of San Jose, Costa Rica. Christ sees people, dead or alive, not dollar signs and net worth. The same applies to those we deem “bad” and “good”. Christ sees only broken or made new. Who are we to decide how we are to treat or label someone based on how we have determined their behavior to be in comparison to what we think it should be. We are called to love and be generous to everyone, especially our enemies. Wisdom and intellect is no different. It can be so easy to think that the average homeless person has no GED or that a GED (or any other piece of paper) determines if one has wisdom. Christ assumes that trust and reverent fear of God is the path to wisdom, and we should assume no different. The Bible makes it very clear that every individual human is made in God’s image and is loved by Him. Loved enough that He’d send His own son to die for each of us. I’ve felt great conviction multiple times on the race when I pick up a conversation with a homeless person or drug addict and they speak coherently, intelligently, and even several times on how much they love God. My assumption based on socioeconomic status caused me to be shocked when this Child of God made in His image had joy and wisdom to pour out. In the Kingdom of God, earthly assumptions need to be left at the door. This lesson has been humbling and eye-opening.
