Saying The Same Thing Two Ways

A friend of mine said (a few years ago) that he thought that living by the Golden Rule was the summation of Christian faith.  That has stuck with me.  For some reason, this past week, I have been impressed by a couple of ways Jesus said it, sort of as an application of "Do to Others as you would have them do to you."

"Judge not that you are not judged.  For as you judge others so will your heavenly father judge you."  Hmmm.  That's the Golden Rule applied to the whole act of judging, it seems to me.

On the Meyers-Briggs scale I come our pretty extreme on the J (judgment) side.  That means I find it easy to relate to people via judgment.  I have spent nearly half a century modifying my behavior so that I don't intuitively judge people but rather work to accept and understand them.  It takes constant vigilance in that one cannot erase these traits that the M-B test uncovers, only modifiy the behaviors they lead to.

"Walk another mile in the other man's shoes" is another way of applying the Golden Rule.  When I am allowed to, I try to perceive life as the "other person" perceives it, feel the feelings the other person feels, understand what it is like to live in the circumstances the other person lives in.  And so forth.  You "get it", I'm sure.  I think this is another way of applying the Golden Rule.

It's  not foolproof.  Especially if I am the fool.

I once had the congregation use pencil and the margins of their bulletin to write down one way they wanted a person near them to treat them.  One way.  One thing.

Then I asked them to give that gift to the specific person they thought of.  After a few minutes of pandemonium, I asked them to reflect on how it felt to be treated as the other person wanted to be treated.

In many cases it was a bust.  Just because John wanted to be treated one way did not mean Bill wanted to be treated that way by John.  Bill had a very different idea of what he wanted.

That's why walking in another person's shoes is so important.  And why, of course, that "other person" has to communicate where her shoes are taking her.  Without sensitive, accurate and non-judgmental communication there is no way either you or I can walk in that other person's shoes.  We simply won't know.

What do you think?  Leave your comment and let us know.