By Melanie Rigney
Thus says the Lord:
Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted, to the tyrannical city! She hears no
voice, accepts no correction; in the child to guide them. (Zephaniah 3:1-2)
The
Lord hears the cry of the poor. (Psalm 34:7a)
Jesus said to (the chief priests and elders), “Amen, I say to
you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did
not later change your minds and believe him.” (Matthew 21:31-32)
Piety
Lord, at times my heart and head are full of judgment.
Guide me to a place where I live to serve You and You alone, without concern
about the intentions of those around me.
Study
The saying
didn’t start in my workplace, but we’ve fully embraced it: Assume noble intent.
It means that when someone rips you apart for a presentation or a view
expressed, you respond as if the person truly meant to help. Maybe he or she
didn’t say it the right way. Or maybe you’ve crossed swords with this person
time and time again, but this is the occasion that he or she really is
attempting to assist you. It’s great in theory, challenging in practice. But
we’re all making progress.
 |
| By Andrey Mironov 777 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons |
The chief
priests and elders weren’t much into assuming noble intent. They judged
everyone by a very rigid ruler. If you didn’t measure up, you weren’t part of
the group. Never mind about their own mistakes. Never mind about the progress
the tax collectors and prostitutes might have made in the past week, month, or
year. What mattered was how well one outwardly lived by the rules. That was
all.
We shake our
heads over this judgmental attitude of the religious leaders of Jesus’s time.
And yet… we quickly turn the other way when that annoying person seems to be
approaching us. We guard ourselves against the colleague who has taken credit
for our work, over and over again. We assume anyone who speaks or dresses
different from us is bad, is not to be trusted. We cast noble intent aside. And
when we do, we also cast aside one of the very most important rules Jesus gave
us: Love your neighbor as yourself.
Action
Assume
noble intent, just for one hour, today in a situation you find challenging.
Talk with the Lord about how you feel afterward.
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