06/22/2025
Good food for thought.
Assume…believing something without proof.
I want to take a moment today to talk about something we all face… no matter where we are, sitting in our church pews, out in the world, or even sitting quietly at home, and that’s how easy it is to assume things about each other.
You know what I mean.
Someone doesn’t smile at you.
Someone’s tone is a little short.
A friend doesn’t text back. A stranger snaps at you in line. And before we even think about it, we’re already deciding what kind of person they are.
“She’s rude.”
“He’s stuck up.”
“They don’t care.”
“They are selfish.”
But I believe God is constantly whispering something different to us: “Look again.”
Watch and listen. Wait in love. James 1:19 ESV “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” If we are quick to hear and slow to speak, that gives us time to think instead of react, or get caught up in our emotions, which sometimes leads us to think wrongly and even assume.
Because the truth is, people are almost always going through something you don’t see.
We are all good and say we are fine when in all actuality, we aren’t always fine. We put on a happy face and make ourselves appear as if we are fine sometimes because we aren’t ready to discuss what is going on in our lives, or we fear judgment from others, and so on.
That quiet person in the back pew?
Maybe they just buried a loved one.
That parent who seems distracted?
Maybe they’ve been up all night worrying about a
child.
That person who seemed standoffish today?
Maybe they’re battling anxiety, or depression, or grief, and they don’t know how to talk about it.
And maybe, just maybe… they showed up at church today praying for peace and or a shoulder to lean on, praying for someone to notice them, not judge them.
We are so quick to assume the worst. But the Bible reminds us…over and over…that God looks not at outward appearances, but at the heart. And if we’re going to love like Jesus, we have to do the same.
The 2 greatest commandments are to love God with all
our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:36-40, Mark 12:28-34, and Luke 10:25-28.
Because Jesus didn’t just love people when they were easy to love.
He loved the angry.
He loved the hurting.
He loved the outcast, the doubter, the broken, and the poor etc.
And He didn’t say, “Come to me once you’ve got it all together.” He said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”. Matthew 11:28 ESV.
That includes the people we find hard to understand, hard to talk to, hard to love, or rude, and it includes us, too.
Because we all have our days. We’ve all had moments when we weren’t at our best. When stress got the better of us. When we were hurting and didn’t know how to say it.
When we were just downright exhausted or overwhelmed. When we felt so alone.
Whenwe felt like a failure. When we felt like we would never be good enough or accepted.
And in those moments… don’t we all hope someone would show us a little grace?
Give us a shoulder to lean on? To love us, instead of judge us? To give a hand up instead of a hand out?
So maybe the most Christ-like thing we can do isn’t to respond with frustration or judgment… but to pause, listen, and learn, in love.
So remember: that person might be carrying something heavy. That this could be the worst week of their life. That maybe, just maybe, what they need isn’t our reaction… but our compassion.
This world has enough people assuming the worst.
Let’s be the kind of people who believe the best.
Let’s be people of grace. That is, after all, how God wants us to be.
And we are representing Him!
Let’s look past the surface, and look at the heart!
Let’s pray for softened hearts, not just toward those who are kind, but toward those who seem distant, cold, or even rude. Because sometimes the rudest person in the room is actually the most broken… and the most in need of love and understanding.
So this week, when you’re tempted to snap back… pause, listen, and learn.
When someone is short with you…pray for them and for you. For you, because of how you saw them, and how we need to be more like Christ.
When you feel misunderstood…remember how God sees you, and extend that same mercy to someone else.
Because grace doesn’t just change people…
It reflects the heart of Jesus.
And that’s what we’re called to do.
Listen to this song: https://youtu.be/9_jAmVSiPQg
Written by Tracy M.
