This afternoon I watched a television program that summarized the elimination votes in CBC Radio's annual "Canada Reads" competition. Hosted this year by Jian Ghomeshi, the judges evaluated the shortlisted non-fiction works and eventually declared Carmen Aguirre's book, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter the winner.
There was no shortage of personal opinions or politics; controversy and cutting remarks were definitely part of the process. I have neither aspirations nor illusions of my work making the cut next year but I cringe at the thought of being "cut" and the pain of being unabashedly censured by those chosen to judge.
You've probably heard the expression, "you can't judge a book by its cover". Although I might have missed it, I never heard the cover mentioned as a deciding factor in declaring a winner. I did hear a lot about writing excellence, relevancy and passion, though, and that got me thinking about how we sometimes judge others.
Unlike the process used to choose a literary winner, too often we humans reject one another based solely on what we see on the outside. I am well aware of the importance of listening to inner warnings we sometimes receive but mostly it's too easy to put others into slots based on their appearance, their speech, social status or income level. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we took time to read hearts instead of criticizing covers? We might be delightfully pleased by what we would find there.
"You are our epistle written in our heartsyou are manifestly an epistle of Christwritten not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God." (2 Corinthians 3:2,3)
The Apostle Paul, even in correcting the Corinthian church, declared that his brothers and sisters were deeply engraved in his heart. Like them, may others recognize the Spirit of God "between our covers".
