God looks at the heart.... Why can't I????

^7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “.....The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (1 Sa 16:7., NIV)

So this is a lesson I really thought I had down, I honestly thought I did.  I have friends that have tattoos, family members, one of my best friends has them; so theoretically I thought I had this down:  Don't judge by the body art.  Then this morning happened.

I went on my morning run, got my 3.5 miles in and I was in "cool down mode" or walking for 5 minutes.  I had my ear buds in listening to music and catching my breath.  A guy says to me, "Looks like you had a good run".  I looked at him (he is covered in tattoos, quite evil looking ones and he looks really rough), said "yes sir I did" and kept walking.  Then this voice in the back of my head says, "I cannot believe you just did that".

As much as it pains me to admit it, I blew him off.  I completely judged him based on appearance.  I felt awful about it, and still do.  The voice (obviously God), stopped me in my tracks, and I turned around and went back.  The guy was still there, struggling to walk with a cane. 

From this point I am so thankful I went back.  I'm not going to mention His real name, but we will just call him "Jeremy".  Jeremy had been in a motorcycle accident about 4 years ago, in which he admitted to going too fast on a curvy road.  He came around a sharp curve to find a parked school bus.  He in no way wanted to injure kids so he downed the bike and got pinned beneath the motorcycle underneath the bus.  Since then he has had 7 surgeries on his leg/ankle and is now looking at the possibility of having it amputated.  Jeremy shared with me how this accident changed his life and helped him to see that he needed God in his life.  He also shared with me how he had been sober now for 4 years.  I shook his hand and congratulated him for sobriety, and shared with him that I had now been sober since 1999 (oops bad memory, was actually 1997).  We continued to talk about life, God, and motorcycles.  He has 5 children (4 boys and one baby girl).  He is really struggling with the decision on amputating his foot or not.  God has given him a new life, a new insight, and a new hope on his personal journey.  He has twins (boy I know that feeling) that are 14.  He shared with me that periodically you can still find nice people around that Asheville area to talk to, but that most wouldn't take time to talk to him because of His tattoos and appearance because he has lived a pretty rough life (ouch, that hurt when he said that).

Jeremy and his family are quite active in local church in Candler (actually a church not far from my home, but I'm not mentioning the name), and one of his twins that is 14 feels that God is calling him to be a preacher.  Towards the end of our conversation I revealed to him that I was a youth pastor and gave him my card and number, expressed to him that if he ever needed encouragement (he was really struggling with keeping physical therapy and walking up), someone to pray with, or talk to that all he had to do was call.  I prayed with him and left.

I left knowing that I still have room to grow in seeing people the way God does.  Jeremy, I am so sorry that I didn't initially see the real you, but I am thankful for the grace of God that led me back to talk to you.  I am desperately wanting to see people the way God sees them, I don't EVER want this to happen again.  If I had not gone back I would have missed meeting Jeremy and hearing his journey.

God bless you Jeremy, and everyone else who has been judged based upon their appearance....

Chris

June 10 update:

I saw Jeremy this morning, he was still in pretty bad shape and discouraged.  He was out of options with his foot/ankle now and they are probably going to amputate it.  I spoke with him for a few and assured him that we would be praying for him on a daily basis.  So, if you would pray for Jeremy.