Prejudice

I wonder how much prejudice affects what we experience, participate in and see in our spiritual life. I'm not talking necessarily about racial prejudice, I'm talking more generally--about premature judgements made upon first impressions.

I traveled home to Mariposa this weekend and rode the train back to Portland. I boarded the train in Sacramento at about midnight Sunday evening. I was assigned a seat on the isle in the front of the car. A guy much younger than myself was asleep in the window seat.

I put my backpack in the overhead rack and did my best to make myself comfortable in the seat so I could sleep. The foot rest on my seat was broken and would not come up all the way. That gave my chair the effective shape of a ski jump. I spent the first hour or so sliding down the ski jump and then pushing myself back to the top.

I finally gave up and decided to lower the foot rest and try sleeping with out it. By this time I was pretty grumpy and primed to indulge in a little prejudice. I attempted to lower the foot rest but an obstruction blocked it. I raised it back up and felt around on the floor. There was a cardboard food caddy with an empty sandwich wrapper, juice bottle and french fry bag under my seat. There was a trash receptacle within two steps of our seats. I immediately assumed that this guy next to me was one of those self-absorbed kids who assumed it was someone else's job to clean up after him.

grumbling, I tossed the trash and lowered the footrest.

At a few minutes before six, I woke to the silhouette of Mt. Shasta as the sun began to glow through the window. I almost missed the beauty of it because I was ready for another helping of prejudice. I was too uncomfortable to sleep any longer, but my seat mate was still slumbering contentedly. I decided that he had never crawled out of his sleep number bed before 10 AM in his life and his body was just reacting out of habit. I noticed the tag above his seat indicated that he was bound for Kalamath Falls. I consoled myself that he was getting off in a couple of hours.

I went to the lounge car and grabbed some coffee. When I got back, I pulled out my Bible and started reading (I know, that picture embarrasses me, too). After a while, my traveling companion awoke. I expected him to pull out his ipod and cell phone and start texting away, but instead he gazed out the window for a while as I read. After a few minutes he adjusted the curtain. The movement caused me to look up from my reading. He smiled and said, "I noticed the sun was in your eyes." (I know, I should just label myself a jerk right now and end this post. And no, the Bible did not burst into flames in my lap).

We introduced ourselves and began to talk. I enjoyed one of the most engaging and interesting conversations I've had in a long time. Come to find out, my friend had graduated from University of Washington and then had spent two years in the Peace Corps. While in the Peace Corps he lived in Tanzania and taught there. He was preparing to start graduate work that would better prepare him to make a difference in lives of people like the ones he had learned to love in Tanzania. He didn't even own an ipod or cell phone because he said they take your attention away from the people around you. I was greatly disappointed when he detrained in Kalamath. I put on my mp3 player and texted Debi.

If I had let my prejudices run the show, I would have missed meeting an amazing person. But, what if I take that a step further? I wonder how many times God has placed people, or opportunities, or blessings in my life and I ignored them or avoided them or failed to explore them because that first impression birthed prejudices that hid what was really there?

Do I habitually prejudice myself out of what God has for me? I hate to think....