Judge not lest ye be judged….
God uses the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise…
These are the phrases that popped into my head while I was driving to work one day last week. They are paraphrases of Matthew 7:1 and 1 Corinthians 1:27. Now, this topic couldn’t have been further from my mind at that moment. I was enjoying the blue skies and warm sun on my face and thinking about the characters that seemed to just introduce themselves to me in the past couple of weeks.
Who was I judging?
My first thought was for fellow writers. Especially those who have been published in the Christian Fiction genre. I had to cringe as I thought of some of the judgements I have passed on them. Not all, but really, very few have escaped my scathing comments. There have been others, too, but these particular authors have probably had the most scorn heaped upon them.
But really, who was I judging? I realized that in my harsh judgement of fellow writers (who were actually writing and not avoiding the blank page), I was really being my own harsh judge. I often discount the messages because the vehicles I would use to deliver them are not perfect. Though I know it is completely unrealistic, I do tend to expect brain to page perfection first time around.
I am moving past this. Not quickly. I seem to be fighting this “creative recovery” as much as I am embracing it. Stay tuned…