The World is not a Courtroom

A court room is a place where it consists of 3 main types of people, the Judge, The jury and the person waiting to be told whether they’re guilty or not (the defendant). The Jury is the decision maker and the judge just goes along with whatever the jury says. So if the defendant has actually done nothing wrong, the jury can still decide he’s guilty if they feel there is enough evidence, and even if the judge doesn’t agree, he/she still has to go with it. The jury have the power to ultimately destroy the defendants life by putting them in jail, or to give the defendant grace by letting them go free.

So now let’s relate this to our lives. How many times have you caught yourself being part of a ‘jury’ and making false statements about someone that you think you know are true. Or looking at someone and saying (or even thinking), “oh, they’re a loser because they don’t have many friends.” When in reality, they have many friends. Even going to a group of friends and telling them something about a person that isn’t exactly a proven fact, but you have evidence, so you just assume its enough. You DON’T have the qualification to go around with your group of friends acting like a jury and stating whether people are this or that. You do not have the right to decide whether a person is innocent or guilty, fat or thin, ugly or pretty, weird or cool, smart or stupid. Your opinion isn’t enough evidence for you to make assumptions about that person.

If you’re the ‘judge’, then you’re that person who pretty much just goes along with whatever people say about another person without even thinking logically about it. If someone says, “she slept with ten guys.” You’ll just believe it without the evidence or without actually saying anything to question it like, “How do you know it’s definitely true.” And because you just believe it, you become part of that jury and start to really make false accusations based on what people are saying and not based on who that person really is. Sometimes as a ‘judge’, you actually don’t want to just go with the ‘juries’ decision, but you do because if you don’t, you stick out from the crowd and its also not seen as normal. The ‘jury’ might even accuse you of doing things because you’re not listening to them, and so the drama starts. If you’re a ‘judge’ I challenge you to step out of that routine of just listening to all the things the ‘jury’ says about people (gossip). And block out their false assumptions, and if you’re really being sucked into believing it, then actually go and ASK that person they were gossiping about if what those people are saying is true. Then you have no worry of being a part of the ‘jury’.

The defendant. If you are any of the above (judge or jury), and you have judged a person (defendant), I want you to think about how they feel. Or maybe you’ve been in a situation where you have been the defendant and you actually know exactly how it feels. The jury (including the judge) has the power to ultimately destroy this persons life. Once a small jury decides on something about a person, like the fact that they don’t have many friends, and go around telling people, everyone acts as a judge and just follows what they say without questioning it, and so it makes it real for this defendant, and now they have to live with it for the rest of their lives. So, just to make it clear, they live out a lie that was made up by people who don’t even know what they’re talking about. Imagine how it must feel to have everyone judging you and thinking you’re someone that you’re actually not, and you can’t even do anything about it. Imagine the pain and hurt this person has to go through every day. But then, imagine if by chance, whenever the jury said something about a person, all the judges around them would stand up and make sure they know what they are talking about, and realize something is a lie, then they would actually be saving the innocent defendant from suffering the consequences that weren’t even relevant.

Are you part of a jury? and if you are, do you enjoy creating hurt? Do you enjoy having power to hurt someone? do you enjoy ruining people’s lives? If your answer is no, then it’s not too late to change, I’m sure you’ve been judged somewhere along the line, how did you feel? Just carefully consider what you are doing with people’s lives. Someone’s life is not something we can just mess around with.

Are you a judge? Do you go along with whatever others say? Do you enjoy being a part of the hurt, pain and brokenness of others? Well stand up, step away from the crowd, Jesus did and he went from 12 followers to about 2 billion all over the world, Mother Theresa did and people are STILL looking up to her.

Are you the defendant? Do you fear the jury and the judge? Do you get hurt and put down what they say? Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself. But that doesn’t in anyway mean getting revenge, it just means being mature and brave enough to know in your heart that what they say is not true and to stay firm on that, and not be afraid to fight for yourself.

I don’t know if you have ever been into a court room but its usually dull, serious, dramatic ect. So now if we turn life into a courtroom, we’re making it all those horrible things and to be completely honest, it won’t be enjoyable at all.

Lets break down the courtrooms in our schools, work, church, home and every day lives, they’re not worth the stuff that comes along with it.