My excesss fifteen lbs. just lurv (Thank you, Jane Go for the word!) me to death!  But Yay! I’m on my third week of attending the dancercise which I abandoned for almost three years.

Yesterday, Lilia, one of the attendees who has been absent for almost a year came, too! She said she was encouraged to come regularly because she was happy to watch me. (“Ang tagal ko nang absent pero ngayon gusto ko na ring umattend kasi tinitingnan kita.”) And then just almost as soon as I went back to my place, I suddenly felt so hot and tired that I stopped first to rest and get a breeze from the fan. This, while my senior citizen classmates with their amazing stamina were still on a go-go-go mode! Hahaha so much for being an inspiration.

My recommendation: Look to the teacher, not the follower.

This brought back to mind the times when people I met said that they wanted to stay away from having a personal relationship with Jesus because of Christians they knew who let them down in one way or another.

I am like that Christian. Sometimes, I am that Christian. Have you ever been that Christian? If yes, we are the same then.

Hebrews 12:1d-2a says And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.

Only Jesus is the one who is sinless and worthy of following and fixing our eyes on. Everyone else is imperfectly trying to follow Him, dependent on His grace.  As our senior pastor says, “All people will disappoint. Only Jesus does not disappoint.”

Sometimes (specially in my earlier days of beginning to study the Word), I tend to judge others for not being good examples. That was when I knew little. The more I knew, the more I knew that I had so so so so so much to attend to in my own walk. I have no right to judge others. These are what God uses to correct my wrong gaze:

Matt 7:7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.  3 “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? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

Luke 6:37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

So I’ve been striving to fix my eyes on Jesus as the example to follow (albeit imperfectly) and then direct my attention to the multiple things I need to correct in my own ways. With so much to attend to, I have less time to look to other Christians to see if they are doing the right thing or not. Or other people if they are “classified” as sinners or not. I am a sinner. Romans 3:23 makes it clear that everyone is classified as sinner . I am no different.

God reminds me through Romans 14:4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

There are repeated commands, “Do not judge others (or we will be judged by the same measure).” Instead, “Love and serve and bear with one another.”

John 13:35 “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Lord help me to look to You only as my Example to follow;

help me not judge You by other followers’ imperfect following;  and

help me not judge them for I am just like they who need to correct our ways to be aligned with Yours.