{"id":23671,"date":"2020-01-06T19:44:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T19:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=23671"},"modified":"2020-01-06T19:44:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T19:44:27","slug":"we-cant-condemn-him-just-because-of-a-mistake-by-banji-ayoola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=23671","title":{"rendered":"We can&#8217;t condemn him just because of a mistake by Banji Ayoola"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">We can&#8217;t condemn our neighbour because of his faults. Neither could we judge him on that basis. It would be wrong to condemn him just because of a single fault, just because of one mistake or error.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>The Lord has told us: Disregard your neighbour&#8217;s faults; love him as you love yourselves. And we can\u00a0 love him only when we disregard his faults, his mistakes, his immaturity. When we do not dwell on his faults; when we do not judge him or think of him or relate with him coldly on the basis of his faults.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">It really hurts to dwell on the other person&#8217;s, our neighbour&#8217;s fault. How it hurts. We only hurt ourselves unnecessarily; we suffer unnecessarily.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">By dwelling on his fault alone, we are blind to his good sides, his strengths and gifts which are blessings for us, for others and the entire Creation.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">By focusing only on his single fault or mistake, oblivious of his strengths which may oftentimes overwhelm his faults and weaknesses, we build a gulf separating us and our neighbour, a dam, a blockade fencing him off from streams of love from us.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Whereas we should dutifully build bridges of love through which love streams purely from us outwards to embrace our neighbour and entire surrounding, and through which in return love streams reciprocally back to us.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>If we turn away from, or avoid or shun people because of their faults, weaknesses or mistakes, soon we may have to turn away from all mankind, soon there would be no one left for us to relate warmly with, soon we may find that we are alone with our self acclaimed selfish maturity, a maturity that won&#8217;t bend to help and serve others lovingly.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">We indeed hurt, we bleed due to what we perceive as the fault or mistake of a neighbour, which indeed may be his own honest current level on which he stands, implying that he does not know better because he sees no further.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">By dwelling only on his fault, we would find out that we carry fresh wounds all over our bodies through which we bleed inwardly endlessly unnecessarily, that we bear sores and ulcers all over within us that do not heal.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><strong>Thereby we close ourselves to opportunities of many joyful experiences with our neighbour from whom we are separating ourselves because we cannot tolerate, disregard, or forgive his fault, his mistake or allow him mature through his mistakes.<\/strong><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">We thus impoverish ourselves; and living then becomes a nightmare.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">For indeed it is rare, difficult to find a man, a woman without blemish, without fault, without weakness or mistake. Such a human being has never been born. We are all given this wonderful opportunity of an earth life to gradually recognise and drop our faults, weaknesses, mistakes and errors.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">What usually happens is that we all are allowed to learn, often painfully and slowly, gradually step by step behind a great shield of love of the Almighty Father from our mistakes, drop our faults one by one and move forward.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The right attitude should be that despite his fault, we should send our struggling neighbour warmth, show him love, still help and serve him by sending him good thoughts, and by praying for him.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">If we castigate, condemn or turn away from our neighbour because of just one fault or mistake due to his level of maturity as at the time, what of the numerous other areas where he has shown exceptional strength or maturity, other areas where he has been and is good to us and others.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">What of the good he has done, the joys he has elicited in us, in others, the warmth and love he has lavished us and others wit, and still does. And the other good qualities he bears.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">What of the possibility for him to gain a better recognition and overcome the particular fault for which we judged and condemned him, and then change to a better human being.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">We would be blind to all these, be unjust and unloving. We close ourselves up against him.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">If we hurt or bleed over our neighbour&#8217;s minor fault, what then could have been the magnitude of the suffering of one of the greatest human beings who have ever crossed the path of this Country Nigeria.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">A man whose people, in the midst of whom he was born and grew up, to whom he was sent to take the loftiest and most wonderful of all gifts on earth and in the heavens, refused generally to accept or embrace this gift for their salvation.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">And yet he worked in their midst, anchored the radiating sanctuary of the Love of the Lord in their midst, and took this wonderful gift he was instructed to bring, to his people.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He did not because of their general refusal or hostility, or fault or weakness withhold the gift from them, the purpose of his earth life.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He gave and delivered to his real people the gift as sent; his real people who are scattered all over Nigeria and Africa. His people who are touched deep within, who grasp and embrace hungrily and thirstily gratefully the gift he brought them.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">May be this was a redeeming experience for him for having once smashed an earlier form of this loftiest gift he had once received and had been sent to give his people then, despite their weaknesses, faults and mistakes, despite their immaturity.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">He would have bled himself dry over this main fault of the generality of his people, the people in the midst of whom he was born, grew up and worked. And yet he worked, helped, served and gave joyfully in their midst. He enjoyed life in their midst despite their fault. He did not allow the general fault of the people to disturb or hinder him.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Starting from our closest neighbours in the home, the wife, husband, wife, children, guests, there are faults, mistakes over which we bleed and for which we condemn unnecessarily.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">Then follow the next rings of our neighbours including friends, bosses, acquittance or associates at place of worship, at work, everywhere else and all others who cross our paths regularly. There are always faults, weaknesses which we allow to disturb us.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">This man or woman for turning away from the foundation of a lifelong union and encouraging children to follow him or her; this man or woman for shabbily treating us not knowing that we too have bills to pay; this or that man conveniently forgetting that we too have bills to settle; this so close man or woman for humiliating us by not acknowledging that we exist; this man or that woman for constantly attacking those who strive for the good; this or that woman for hedging and laying our paths with hostile attacks; and the likes.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\">The examples are many. We can&#8217;t condemn them just because of their single fault, mistake or weakness.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/alternativeadvert.com\/show.php?z=30&amp;pl=19271&amp;ad_type=81&amp;rl=1800\" width=\"336\" height=\"280\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We can&#8217;t condemn our neighbour because of his faults. Neither could we judge him on that basis. It would be wrong to condemn him just because of a single fault, just because of one mistake or error. The Lord has told us: Disregard your neighbour&#8217;s faults; love him as you love yourselves. And we can\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/PERFECT.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-69N","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23672,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23671\/revisions\/23672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}