Guilty! I'm guilty of doing it yet again. Every time I think I've recovered from that dreaded JABBIC disease, I find myself coming down with a fresh case of it. You know JABBIC disease right? Judge-A-Book-By-Its-Cover disease? You know, that tendency I (and maybe some of you) have to let someone's outfit or appearance guide me to a conclusion about their character? Whether its assuming the girl in the Tory Burch flats and Kate Spade purse is a snob or thinking the guy in the wife-beater and grungy jeans is a slob, it is ALWAYS dangerous to think you know what someone is like based on how they look. Once again, I was guilty of making the wrong call even though it was just for a few seconds before God opened my eyes to the truth.
I was at a local mall having just wrapped up some quality time with my two toddlers in the play area. Wait. Let me stop right there. Right now, some of you are judging me for taking my kids to the mall playground. You know what? Go ahead. I used to do it. I used to swear I would NEVER take my kids to one of those areas. I used to say the whole concept of a playground in the mall was an abomination. And then I found myself staying home with a two-year-old and a one-year-old and I realized, the indoor playground is a gift from God. The ability to go to one place and let your kids play and tire themselves out, pick up a cup of coffee from Starbucks, and return that impulse buy from Nordstrom all while only getting the kids in and out of the car once is one of the tangible ways I know that God loves me. Sorry, I got off subject there, back to my Miss Judgey moment....
I had both kids in the double stroller, and we were heading to the car maneuvering our way around a long line of people waiting to order food. In that line were several business man, and one twenty-something girl wearing a fitted cropped tank and leggings. I remember seeing her out of the corner of my eye and thinking to myself, "God, please don't let my daughter ever be THAT girl." Now, I will argue for modesty ALL day long and truly think it matters, but I wasn't just thinking of the lack of modesty of her outfit. I was assigning all kinds of negative character traits to her based on that outfit, things I couldn't actually know about her. And then the next second happened. Just a few feet from the young woman I was busy judging, a frail, elderly woman who was getting her morning exercise in the mall tripped and fell flat on her face. All of the dozen or so people in the vicinity, including myself, immediately reacted with concern. Several people knelt down to check on her. I pulled out my phone and after a quick consultation with the three people kneeling down close to her, called 911. The poor woman was not moving, and while conscious, was bleeding from a would we later learned was on her chin.
For the first few minutes, everyone stayed nearby expressing concern, looking for ways to help. When the mall security guard arrived, several people moved on getting back to their shopping or eating or ordering their lunch. A moment later when the police officer arrived, only a couple of us were still standing by ready to help. Ten minutes later when the EMTs arrived to take her to the hospital, only one person was still kneeling by her side. That person was not the professionally dressed gentleman who first asked her if she was okay. It was not the older, motherly figure who had shown such concern and thanked me for calling 911. Yep, you guessed it. It was THAT girl. Without a bit of regard for herself, that midriff bearing, twenty-something had knelt by the woman's side as though it was her own grandmother. She was the one who asked her name first. She was the one who looked around the crowd and asked if anyone was with her. She was the one who made sure I was calling 911. She was the one who dug in her purse and pulled out a wet wipe to clean the blood from the sweet woman's hands. She was the one who was holding her hand and whispering comforting words as the EMTs began to check her out. As distressed as I was for the poor, injured 91-year-old woman, I was incredibly moved by the compassion of this young woman. I wasn't the only one to notice her. My two-year-old daughter saw her actions and asked me if she was the lady's mother. In her mind, the person that takes care of you when you're hurt is mama and through eyes that couldn't yet distinguish the vast age difference, she just saw actions of the young woman towards the injured woman and came to the only conclusion that made sense to her.
Suddenly, I went from thinking, "God, please don't let my daughter ever be THAT girl," to "God, please let my daughter grow up to be THAT girl!". Of course, I want her to dress modestly and I'm teaching her that. However, that was not the thing that caught her eye or convicted my heart. My daughter got to witness the story of the Good Samaritan played out in modern times right in front of her. This young woman was of a different generation, a different race, and who knows what other differences existed between her and the sweet elderly woman on the ground. The dozen or so others who were closer in age, of the same race, and probably the ones I would have expected to stay and help had all gone on about their day, but this young lady didn't think twice about staying and helping. Later that day, my daughter asked about the lady who fell down. She wanted to pray for her again. She prayed for God to make her feel better, and then she prayed for the "other lady", the one who helped her. In the weeks that have followed, when she has thought of the incident, she has asked about the lady that fell down, and she always asks about the "other lady", the one who helped her. I don't know anything about that young woman. I don't know what she believes or how she lives, but I know in that moment she modeled Jesus. She did exactly what Christ has called us to do in such a moment. I was convicted in that moment of my personal failure in judging someone that I knew nothing about. In that moment of prejudice, Christ was saying to me, "Janay, don't you be THAT girl!" I was convicted in that moment and I was also inspired, inspired to be sure that my actions are like the ones of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 and the "good samaritan" we saw in the mall that day. I can hear Christ saying to me exactly what He said at the end of that parable in verse 37, "Go, and do likewise" or as I hear it in my head, "Go, be THAT girl." I intend to do just that.
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