Someone needs your benefit of the doubt

​I've experienced the power of the benefit of the doubt lately. The power of people coming into my life and saying, I don't need to know every detail. I know you're good. That's all I need to know.

There's a story in the bible in the book of John. The religious scholars bring a woman to Jesus. They believe the woman is guilty of adultry.

These religious zealouts remind Jesus that the old testament says this woman needs to be stood up and stoned for her mistake. So what say you, Jesus, what do you think we should do?

Jesus bends down and starts writing something in the dirt. One of the first things I want to ask Jesus when I stand face to face with him in heaven is - what did you write in the dirt? Because the bible doesn't tell us, it just says Jesus wrote something in the dirt with his finger.

I wonder if he wrote 'give her the benefit of the doubt.'

Because Jesus answers the scholars.

He tells them, sure, go ahead. Stone her. And how about this, let the ones of you who have never screwed up go ahead and throw the first stone.

Line up now, boys. Line up and let the perfect zealots throw away....

Not one of them started throwing away. In fact, they all walked away.

Jesus then turned to the woman and basically said, guess that takes care of that. Now go on your way. Go on your way; I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.

Jesus knew there was value in this woman far beyond any mistakes he or anyone else might have thought she'd made.

Seth Godin says, "In different settings, we grant the benefit of the doubt to the big man on campus, the homecoming queen, the tall person, the celebrity, the person who apparently has amassed a lot of money, the one who fits our cultural mores, the male, the white person, the conventionally pretty one, the conventionally abled one, the one who is popular. But it also might be the class cut-up, the insurgent or the renegade."

I think that's why I love Jesus so much. Why I long to be more like him. Because Jesus ALWAYS migrated to the class cut-ups, the insurgents and the renegades.

Jesus was obsessed with going around and adding value to the people who didn't always feel valued.

Jesus always started where we often refuse to. Jesus started by saying, you know, you've probably made some mistakes in life. You've probably got some habits or hangups that aren't serving you well. But I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. Because none of those things reduce your value in my eyes.

Too often, I think we focus first on the value reducers. We look for reasons to doubt instead of reasons to love. We look for reasons to throw stones instead of looking inside our own lives and realizing, we're not actually in a position to throw any stones.

Maybe the next time you're in a position where you feel like you want to throw stones, when maybe you're not giving someone the benefit of the doubt, maybe stop and get down on the ground and with your finger write - 'benefit of the doubt.'

Sure, you might look a little odd.

But you also might avoid stripping value from someone who truly deserves to be valued by you.

Someone who NEEDS to be valued by you.