take a breath

Yesterday I walked into a waiting room where two little girls were fighting.

The seven year old wanted the four year old to obey her. The four year old wanted anything other than what her sister wanted. So they yelled, threw things and hit each other. Of course, while all of this is unfolding the only other adult in the room sat quietly watching them. And I thought to myself, what a terrible mother.

At the height of the fight she shooshed them. What makes that bad of a parent?

Then the door from the office opened and out walked the girl’s dad and mom. They put jackets on the girls and walked out of the office. Leaving me sitting with the other woman I thought was their mother – and all the judgmental feelings I had fabricated.

We live in a world where information moves faster than reality.

I had the information that there was one woman and two children in the room and I immediately associated them together. But it happens everywhere – remember that UFO-esque balloon that every cable network in America paid to have a helicopter follow for the better part of a day?

Jesus didn’t seem to live this way.

When an angry mob was ready to stone an adulterous woman (according to the Law as written in the Hebrew Scriptures), Jesus drew in the sand.

He slowed the moment down.

He found the thing behind the thing – that all sin is adultery, and therefore either everyone needed to be stoned, or no one needed to be stoned.

Instead of a flash of judgement, we saw a waterfall of mercy.

A few moments of thought changed the outcome entirely. Which makes you wonder what would happen if we lived like Jesus – quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.