Saturday "Reading"

I'm sitting in my apartment on campus right now, the sun is shining brightly in my window, but I am not going to let it fool me into thinking that it's a nice day to go and spend time outside. Instead, I am sitting on my couch with a book I am reading for school, "The Story of Christianity," sitting open on my lap while I am reading other people's blogs instead.

Reading blogs isn't going to help me prepare for my Christian Heritage class on Monday, but I am doing it anyway, because I'm an adult and I can. I just read a post  on a fellow NPTS student's blog about the ignorance of some people, christians particularly, toward gender roles, sexuality, and what the working definition of what it means to be a "real man" is in todays society, and it led me to think about my own ignorance about topics like this. For much of my life I had lacked experience with different cultures and people groups that I am now interacting on a weekly, if not daily basis. And I was thinking about how often I stereotype or judge different people based on external appearance- the clothes they wear, the music they listen to, the cars they drive, the things they have to say- and i absolutely hate that about myself. 

I hate that I judge people so much. I hate that I typecast people. I hate that I am hesitant to get to know certain people or spend time with certain people because I think I already know exactly what they are going to be like. I'm sure I have missed out on having the pleasure of being friends with so many quality people because I thought myself to be too important to interact with them. 

As I was thinking about this, the bells from the Chapel at North Park started doing their hourly ringing (which I never even noticed they did until last week, maybe it's not hourly but daily?), and they started playing the hymn How Great Thou Art. That song is flipping beautiful, but hearing it at that moment made me think about how the God that I believe in and worship and serve is the same God to all of the people that I judge, and stereotype, and avoid, and think that I am better than. At times I"m singing, 'how great thou art', but what my heart may be singing is 'how great i am'. 

Wow- sometimes I just get it completely wrong.