Have you ever watched the show, Glee, on Fox? Well up until a couple days ago I hadn't - not until my cousin's daughter posted the latest episode (courtesy of Hulu). While the show was primarily about homosexual teenagers, the theme was about accepting people for their differences and not being afraid to be who you are. One of the lines in the episode was when the Glee Club teacher says to the football coach, "All of us are scarred by high school. Next to our parents, nothing screws a person up more - and people like us, we're stupid enough to come back here and relive that pain every day."
While I don't believe that everyone is scarred by high school, I know there are plenty of people who have a pretty rough time of it. I guess part of the problem is that it is a time in everyone's life when they are trying to figure out who they are. There is a great deal of uncertainty and insecurity during the teenage years and the way that some people handle that is by taking it out on their peers - on singling out those who, for one reason or another, are labeled as being different - maybe their looks are different (color, size, shape, etc.), or they act differently, or they speak differently.
In the past couple months, I spoke with two girls: one who is seventeen and one who is twenty-two. Both girls are very pretty (tall, slim, nice build, pretty hair and face, well dressed, etc.), intelligent and have nice, friendly personalities. The thing is, that both of them spoke about having people judge them unjustly. They both mentioned that some people don't like them without even giving them a chance. At first, I was very surprised, because my intial thought was "how could someone not like you?" but then I remembered my own experiences - I was like that, too, when I was their age - people thought the same thing about me.
I wasn't popular in high school - in fact, I was picked on quite a bit. I had friends, I just wasn't part of the "in" crowd. I remember sophomore year when I was helping the captain of the football team in math. He was one of those popular boys who all the girls swooned over. (I wasn't impressed because while he was nice, he wasn't that bright.) Anyway, I remember him telling me that he really appreciated all my help because he never would have passed without me and that I was pretty cool but he couldn't be my friend because he would be judged for hanging out with me because I wasn't one of the popular kids. That's kind-of ironic, isn't it?
In addition to raising me not to be shallow and superficial, my mother taught me not to pick on someone or be prejudiced against someone for something that they would change if they could. For instance, it is wrong to judge someone based solely on their race or ethnic background, but it is also wrong to judge someone because they are unattractive or poor. The sad thing is that people do it all the time. If I don't like someone, it's because of who they are, not what they are. I don't really care if someone is white or purple, tall or short, fat or thin, gorgeous or homely, rich or poor, liberal or conservative, I decide whether or not I like someone based on their personality. When I meet someone new, I assume they are a good person until they prove otherwise.
Why is it that someone people are so quick to judge others? The fear of being rejected forces some people to hide who they really are. I'm not saying that we have to like and be friends with everyone, I'm just saying that we should show everyone the same kind of respect that we would like to receive. We are all different - that is a given - but it doesn't mean that anyone should act as if they believe they are better than someone else. According to Galatians 2:28 (NIV), "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." We need to start acting like it!
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