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Don't Judge a Book: Seeing Beyond the Cover · HAVE FAITH LET IT BEGIN®

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  It's Monday, and you know what that means. Welcome to Have Faith. Let it begin.
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  Podcast of inspiration. It's a podcast of hope.
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  It's a podcast of faith, and it's a podcast of friendship.
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  Here is your host, Angel Santana, and special co-host, Dr. E.
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  We're a three-podcast time. That's it, man. Let's rock and roll in 3, 2, 1.
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  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Have Faith, Let It Begin.
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  It's a Monday, and Dr. E is back.
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  I want to start off today with something simple.
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  Don't judge a book by its cover. How many times have we looked at someone and
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  made up a story about them before we even knew their name?
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  Maybe it was the way they dressed, the car they drove, the job they had,
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  or even the mistakes they made.
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  But the truth is, every person you meet is carrying a story, a story you can't see.
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  The quiet person in the corner might be fighting a battle they never even talked
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  about. The person who seems strong might be barely holding on to things together.
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  Well, today we're going to talk to Dr.
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  E and we're going to talk about 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 I've been reading on it
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  and I wanted to talk about it and let's get started Dr.
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  E, welcome back, buddy Angel, it's so good to be here, I feel so bad,
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  I've been out of the game, but I'm back.
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  Hey, listen, you know what? Like I always say, it's, it's even when you're gone,
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  you're still here. And when you're still here, you're still here.
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  I want to tell everybody out there, my family on have faith.
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  I haven't forgot about you.
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  It's been crazy. Angel's been crazy.
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  It's been just a wild winter up here in the Hudson Valley for our local listeners,
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  you know, talking about probably the worst winter I've been through.
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  It just was unrelenting and it still doesn't want to give up.
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  You could probably hear the wind howling behind us.
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  It just won't go away.
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  But Angel, it's going to go away.
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  It's going to. But I want to remind everybody, quick note, yesterday's episode
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  on the Croc podcast, Citizens Reunited to Overcome Cancer, was probably one
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  of the best episodes I have ever been a part of.
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  It is definitely one that we may want to steal and put it on our platform,
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  whispers within the scream, and it is phenomenal.
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  That's all I'm going to tell you. It's about a young lady named Rosemary.
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  Trust me, you do not want to miss it. Stop right now. Go listen to it.
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  It's worth listening to.
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  Dr. E, judging a book by its cover, I took this right out of Samuel because
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  in that verse, it says, people look at the outward.
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  What does that scripture mean to you?
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  Well, I think that, you know, it's such a great lesson because I think we're all guilty of it.
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  So, you know, there's our Christian soul, you know, or it doesn't have to be
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  Christian, our human soul. Let's start there.
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  And that soul is pure. But unfortunately, the meat suit that we wear that covers our soul is human.
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  And that humanity is full of the vices. you hear of the seven deadly vices, they're all true.
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  And if you tell me you don't experience jealousy and envy and rage and anger
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  and all this kind of stuff, then you're lying to yourself and you're lying to everyone else.
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  When we look at people, we look at our weaknesses as a reflection in them or
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  we're intimidated by them.
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  And we try to demean that person either by judging them or, you know,
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  seeing them in a way that is unfair.
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  And, you know, in that biblical reference, Samuel, that gets right to the bottom
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  of the angel, wouldn't you say?
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  I do. And I think that a lot of us can relate to this. This is the best way
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  I can describe judging a book by its cover.
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  I hate to bring a bad moment, but right after 9-11, I personally had a prejudice.
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  I didn't know if I should trust another type of religion.
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  And I'll be very honest, it was the Muslim faith. I was scared.
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  I was scared of that religion, of that culture.
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  And what I've learned over time, and thank God for ministry school, is that.
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  There are good people out there. There are great people that I've met over time
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  that God has allowed me to reach out to people that are Muslim and they have great hearts.
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  And you cannot judge a book by its cover.
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  You cannot assume that somebody that they tell you hates is going to be the
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  same way that others think.
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  So that's one of the things that hit for me, Dr. E.
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  Yeah, I was going to say what a great way I could actually expand on that point.
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  You know, so as Americans, obviously, we're extraordinarily good.
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  I want to say, you know, I'm very proud to say the least of our American heritage
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  about how we lead the world and how this is the greatest country and blah, blah, blah.
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  And, you know, the entire Muslim Islamic culture, you know, has overshadowed
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  what true Islamic beliefs really are.
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  And when my daughter got out of college, she went to a small country in Western
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  Africa called the Gambia, which is a Muslim country.
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  And I went to visit her and I saw, this is post 9-11.
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  Saw a country filled with people that were so spiritual and so giving and so
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  warm and so generous with what little they had.
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  And I happened to visit her during the celebration of Ramadan,
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  which is a one-month celebration where people of that faith,
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  you know, don't, they fast all day.
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  They have to eat their big meal before the sun comes up and they don't break
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  fast until after the sun comes down.
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  And we're talking about working in the fields of 110 degrees,
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  you know, in Western Africa, you know, trying to work and not eat and not drink.
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  And then come wait till sundown and then cook whatever little amounts of food
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  that they can scavenge together and share it with me and pray and the way their children,
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  how they raised their children.
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  There was not one iota of hatred. There was no iota of me being different, being a Christian.
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  I was part of that family. And I will say that in light of this situation we're
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  in right now in a war with another Muslim country in the Middle East with Iran,
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  we are very quick to judge the book.
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  By its cover. And, you know, maybe this is what God led us to do this podcast
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  about tolerance and being able to realize that extremism,
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  whether it be Christian extremism or Muslim extremism, Islamic extremism,
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  whatever extremism it is, is dangerous.
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  But the vast majority of the people practicing their faith to the extent that
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  it should be practiced need to be respected and should be uplifted and should be protected.
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  Well said. I think that that's the way we're going to close it out and we'll
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  do it a quick prayer, but I would like to leave us with this.
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  God sees different than we do. He sees people differently than we do.
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  How does he do that? He looks past our appearances.
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  He looks past our labels. He looks straight into our hearts.
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  So today, before we make assumptions, before we decide who someone is, let's slow down.
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  Let's lead with compassion. Let's lead with understanding instead of judgment.
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  Because sometimes the greatest stories, the strongest faith,
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  and the most powerful testimonies come from the people we almost overlooked.
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  And that's something we're thinking about today.
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  Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for Dr. E.
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  We thank you for our Half-Faith Let It Begin family. And we thank you for the
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  joys that you bestowed upon us.
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  In your precious name, amen. On behalf of all of us here on Half-Faith Let It
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  Begin Monday, welcome back, Dr. E.
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  We'll see you again tomorrow. Watch the Kroc podcast. I'm telling you,
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  it's an amazing episode. If you didn't listen to it, you're missing out.
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  And never forget, Half-Faith Let It Begin, baby. See you next Monday. Take care.