For approximately two and a half decades my father worked for a commercial bakery whose bread was on the shelves of supermarkets across the nation. I remember a story he told of an event that occurred while he was working there. One of the jobs he did in the course of his time with this company was in an area known as the wrapping room. This was where the baked loaves of bread went through a slicing machine and were then wrapped for shipment. Hundreds, if not thousands, of loaves went through this area every hour. One of the workers in this area had the responsibility of leaping into action if the wrapping machines broke down. This was not the norm, but it did happen a significant number of times during the week. When it did it fell to this worker to begin putting all the loaves feeding down the conveyor onto shelves. Once the wrapping machine was put back into action the worker would start feeding those racked loaves back into the line.
My father told me of the time when management brought in a team of efficiency experts to evaluate the bakery operation. Their task was to make recommendations as to how things could be improved. Their time in the wrapping room occurred while everything was running smoothly. They saw a person standing there not doing much of anything. Without doing any research as to his function, they reached a conclusion – he is worthless. He was fired. They neither knew nor researched his full story. He was fired. Then, when the wrapping machines broke down, as they inevitably did, hundreds and thousands of loaves of bread hit the floor and had to be thrown away. More money was lost by the company than it would have cost to pay this man for standing around idle for some time until he had to leap into action.
I think of this story often as I find myself often making the same mistake as those efficiency experts. Far too often I find myself making negative judgments against someone without knowing their full story. I discover that someone belongs to a certain political party, religious group, etc. and think, “If they identify with those people or think that way, then they are worthless.” I make a judgment based on limited information.
This is not to say there are not people who are making decisions based on hateful, biased, and destructive perspectives. I definitely need to do everything in my power and ability to neutralize the pain and destructive consequences that result from actions driven by the wrong belief that someone who is different (skin color, sexual orientation, ethnic background, etc.) is inferior and is not entitled to equal rights, treatment, and protection under the law. People acting on these erroneous beliefs are acting in a destructive way.
The challenge I face is to not, in effect, become the same thing. When I automatically label and condemn someone as “bad,” “evil," or, "worthless" without finding out their full story, then I have become the very thing I am condemning. This is true of me even if I am standing up for things that need to be stood up for.
I do not want to become that which I condemn.
Think about it.
You are loved. Peace.
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