Some years ago in a small town in Nevada, a Shakespearean tragedy played itself out in the nondescript lanes of a gas station. There, a man’s life ended. He was just an ordinary grandpa with an ordinary family. But they
Some years ago in a small town in Nevada, a Shakespearean tragedy played itself out in the nondescript lanes of a gas station. There, a man’s life ended. He was just an ordinary grandpa with an ordinary family. But they loved him and depended upon him for strength, love and companionship. His life ended at the hands of an ordinary young man whose family depended upon him for similar things.
It was a tragedy brought on by a series of inconsequential events as the young man’s wife became involved in an argument with the older gentleman over a misunderstanding.
She entered the store and related her side of the argument to her husband, who then confronted the old gentleman, perhaps thinking he was defending her honor. A few words were exchanged, a man was shoved backward, a head slammed a concrete curb, a life was over.
Two families then mourned, one for the loss of their grandfather and husband to death, the other for the loss of their father and husband to jail.
How sad! How tragic! How different that day’s events could have been had one person been willing to give the other the benefit of a doubt.
In speaking to a group of Jews who sought to denigrate him for a perceived slight, Jesus taught them to “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”
That counsel is as valid today as it was anciently. How many lives have been changed forever because of how someone reacted to a first impression? Is it not true that when we give someone the benefit of a doubt we are in essence following the Savior’s counsel to judge righteously?
Consider the man known to us today as he who fell among thieves on his way to Jericho. Two men passed by him as they judged him according to their own life’s experiences, but a third man, a Good Samaritan as he was called, looked upon the wounded one and without knowing whether he be a thief who had received his just desserts, or a victim of another’s evil, he gave him the benefit of the doubt and extended a helping hand.
To give another the benefit of a doubt is to render in our hearts a verdict of not guilty when the evidence may even suggest guilt. It is to assume someone’s innocence rather than guilt until we learn and understand more. It is no more than we hope we will receive from others when we say or do things we later come to regret.
Perhaps when the Savior taught us to use righteous judgment, He had in mind more of a withholding of judgment than he did a passing of any kind of judgment.
So let us be a little kinder, a little gentler, a little more tolerant, a little slower to anger, a little less inclined to render that judgment, but instead to give that wondrous benefit of a doubt to all.
• Craig Lindquist is a Lihue business owner who writes a regular column for The Garden Island.
