When I was a kid, my friends and I played a lot of basketball. In the summer, we played lots more basketball, 10-12 hours a day, everyday. The day would start with games of “21” in the driveway, followed by more 21 in someone else’s driveway followed by pickup games on the courts at the Little League diamonds until it was too dark. At which point we’d go play in someone’s driveway that had good lights. You get the picture.
And speaking of pictures, one of my friends—we called him Cheese; it’s a long story—was a bit of a shutterbug. He was also the shortest guy in our little gang of regulars, somewhere in the vicinity of 5’ 6”. Needless to say, this put him at a disadvantage when we played basketball, but he was a good sport, battling every game all the same. Sometimes for fun, he’d bring his camera along and we’d stage pictures for him of spectacular dunks or rejections. One guy would stand under the rim, while another dunked in his face. Yeah I know, pretty stupid, but hey, we were teenage boys! Anyway, we never left Cheese out of the fun. We’d stage shots with him too. You’d look through all the pictures once they were developed, and see shot after shot of one or the other of us being “posterized,” to use ESPN slang, even by Cheese.
Of course, for all the shots of Cheese dunking, or swatting away someone’s layup, what you couldn’t see was the ladder he was standing on. It was all good for a few laughs, but here’s the point: not everything is, as it seems. Despite the airs we put on to make others believe we’ve got it all together, most of us aren’t. I will offer myself as a prime example of this. I may appear to people I meet as a generally kind, affable, conscientious person. What they don’t see is that I am selfish, aloof, and lazy. I battle with myself constantly to overcome the numerous sins and failures I commit every day. If God is not who I think He is, I’m in deep trouble.
You know the old saying, don’t believe everything you see and half of what you hear? Well, when looking at others, always bear in mind that they are struggling just like you. And if you’re inclined to judge someone else as having sinned, stop a moment and consider yourself first. Stop comparing yourself with others, and do not judge them because things may not be as they seem.
Time for another story from Mt. Athos:
A young monk died after a long battle against liquor. He frequently got drunk and caused a scandal in the towns and to his brother monks. Everyone was glad when he died because the constant turmoil that disrupted their peace died with him. Some of the monks went to a holy elder and said to him, “Isn’t it wonderful Father that so-and-so died. We’re glad he’s gone.”
To which the elder replied, “Yes I know. I saw a flight of angels come and bear him to heaven.”
“No Father, I don’t think you know who we’re speaking of. We’re talking about the monk, so-and-so; you know, the drunk.”
“Yes, I know who you mean. I know this monk. When he was young, the Turks came to his village to take away all the little boys. His parents hid him from them and to keep him quiet, they put raki in his milk. As he grew, he developed an addiction to alcohol to the point where he would have over 20 drinks a day.
When he came here to the Holy Mountain, he confessed all this to his spiritual father, and his spiritual father told him to fast and pray to God to help him reduce his consumption by just a one drink a day. Over a long period, he prayed but still drank, but slowly he did reduce his consumption to 19 glasses, then 18, and so on until he was down to only one or two a day, although it still affected him greatly. Now his battle is over. You saw a drunk, but God saw a fighter. That is why the angels came to take him to heaven.”
