This happened when Chuck Swindoll was speaking in California: ‘A gentleman came to him and said, “I have waited so long for this week, I am going to eat up everything you have to say.” Swindoll thanked him. Sunday night…the man started nodding [off]. Swindoll figured that he’d had a long drive and was probably tired. It happened each night until the conference ended. As a preacher…it didn’t feel good to see someone sleeping on him. On Friday morning, the lady who was sitting next to him came to Swindoll and said, “I want to thank you for the ministry this week. Oh, and by the way, I am sorry about my husband sleeping on you…He has terminal cancer and the doctors have just given him a couple of weeks to live. When we talked about what he wanted to do before he died, he said, ‘I want to go hear Chuck Swindoll.’ But you see, Dr Swindoll, the doctors gave him medicine to keep away the pain, and the medicine makes him sleep. I wanted to apologise to you that he has been sleeping, but I wanted you to know you made this the best week of the last part of his life.” Swindoll later said he could have crawled under a rock, because he had made a judgement and without any investigation he reacted.’ Why did Jesus say, ‘Judge not, that you be not judged’? Because there may be circumstances and factors at work in a person’s life that you don’t understand. So instead of judging them, extend to them the same grace God has extended to you.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.