It’s amazing how the bad example of one person can reflect poorly on many others. After the Seattle Seahawks narrowly defeated the 49ers, cornerback Richard Sherman made a fool of himself during a post-game interview. His rant was so outrageous and offensive to me that I commented, “I’ll never root for Seattle again!” Then, with a few words of wisdom from my wife, I realized what I had done– I had judged an entire team on the basis of what one person had done.
For the record, I don’t really care who won the game—it’s simply not important. However, even something like a football game can teach us some life lessons. So, let’s talk about something that truly is important. How many times have you heard someone judge a church or all Christians because of the deeds of one person? It happens all the time. It is common to hear someone remark, “I don’t go to church because there are too many hypocrites in the church”. That is a pitiful excuse! But the fact remains that there really are too many hypocrites in the church– just like there are too many dishonest people in the banking business, etc. But,we need to make sure we aren’t a stumbling block to others. We also need to avoid the sin of judging everyone else based on the bad behavior of one person. The next time you’re tempted to make that mistake just remember–it’s the fallen star that gets all the attention. For every one that falls there are millions that carry on just as God intended. I don’t care who you root for in a ball game, but please don’t condemn everyone else because of what one person does. Think about it!
