Brownlow Medal

In case you don't already know I love football, I love to watch games, I love to read the stats, and yes I am one of those silly few who love the Brownlow Medal. Last night I sat down again to watch hoping that Gary Ablett Junior or Jimmy Bartel would win "Charlie". Can I say I believe Adam Cooney is a very deserving winner but as I was watching last night I was continually amazed at the times when players like Ablett, Bartel and especially Brent Harvey from North Melbourne failed to receive votes in games when they had been rated the best player by every media outlet ! How could it be that the umpires could not see what everyone else had ?
In thinking about this I came to a couple of decisions. Firstly I think at times the umpires are too close to the action and struggle to see the overall value of a players performance. They don't always seem to judge everyone on the same level. For some of these "Stars" of the game they have to play at an extremely high level to get votes where as other players are judged on their so-called level and receive votes in games when they probably weren't in the best three. Secondly the umpires are human which means a couple of things; firstly they make mistakes and there will be times when they miss the outstanding player of that game, and secondly they have feelings and emotions so if someone has been giving them a hard time (maybe sledging or back chatting) human nature makes it hard to see past that.
I couldn't help thinking about real life, how often do we get upset with people when they judge us ? Are we quick to judge others ? The Bible is very clear that we shouldn't be judging others but that doesn't seem to slow us down at all.
So if someone seems to have been judging you should you get upset by it and let it alter your outlook on life and values ? The answer is No. Maybe the person judging you is too close to the situation to be able to see your real value to the team. Maybe you are being judged on a level that is above what should be expected. Maybe there is something personal in this judgement, maybe you have upset someone without knowing. Whatever it may be we should not let ourselves be overcome by other peoples judgement of us.
This is not too say that we shouldn't listen to people and take advise from people. We all need critical evaluation in our lives, but before you go and get too upset take time to look at who is delivering this advise and if it is valid and reasonable.
We all need to be very careful not to judge others, we don't know what is happening in peoples lives, we only see a very small percentage of a persons daily decisions. Next time before judging maybe step back and try and look at the positives as well as the negatives. People respond to positive feedback far better than constantly being given negatives.
Ultimately we all will have to face one day of judgement, and we should all be working hard to ensure that on that day we can stand before our Master and Lord and hear the words " Well done my good and faithful servant"