655. Since The One Who Judges Is God Alone, I Spoke Without Fear

💌655. Since The One Who Judges Is God Alone, I Spoke Without Fear

President volunteer Paul Lee visited Jeong Beauty Parlor (of the Little Soul) and was having a conversation with my husband in the master bedroom. Suddenly, I heard his angry voice, shouting, “That b****rd deserves to die! Someone like that is a beast, not a human!” The loud voice startled me while I was styling a customer’s hair.

As my four children were always very quiet and calm, customers did not even know I had kids. Moreover, my husband had never raised his voice, so I was so startled that I quickly ran into the room, put my index finger to my lips and said, “President, this is a business place.” He then lowered his voice, saying, “Ah, right.”

“But who is the ‘b**** rd who deserves to die’?” I asked. “It is W’s husband, that b**** rd who deserves to die,” he replied. I asked, “Why?” Then President Paul said that W’s husband was having an affair. One day, he even brought another woman into the house. He shamelessly laid his wife on his right side and the other woman on his left and he slept with both of them. And he said her husband was truly a despicable b****rd.

As soon as I heard that, even though I had only recently been baptized and despite having served in the charismatic renewal movement since I was a catechumen, I was still just a rookie, I spoke without hesitation. “President! We do not know why he had an affair, do we? Would there not be some reason for him to go that far?” From a human perspective, it was not an easy thing to say.

“Julia, no matter the reason, that is something only a beast would do, not a human being,” he said. So I asked, “President, have you ever been to sister W’s house?” “No, I have not.” “Then have you ever met her husband?” He admitted that he had not.

So, I said, “President, with all due respect, and though I am young, may I say something? Only God is the judge. We are His servants to let Him known and I hope that at least we, as His servants, do not judge or criticize based on just one side of the story without knowing all the facts.” He replied, “Yes, Julia, you are right.”

“President, let us visit sister W’s house together. We should see for ourselves and guide her properly, do you not think?”

We decided to visit sister W’s house together the next day. Although I had spoken boldly to the President, I was not sure if her husband was truly a bad person deserving of reproach. I wanted to confirm that for myself.

Sister W, who lived in Gwangju, was one year younger than me but began volunteering in the charismatic renewal movement a year before I did. Occasionally, she would stand at the podium, holding the microphone and speak about her husband. However, those stories were always complaints about him. Every time she shared these, the other charismatic volunteers would praise her and criticize her husband, to the point where he came to be called “the b****rd who deserved to die.”

After having breakfast, I, with the President hurried in the morning to find sister W’s house, asking for directions along the way. When I arrived at sister W’s house and knocked, there was no response. I was about to leave when, without realizing it, I gently opened the door. The door opened and I found that she had already left and there was no one there.

We entered the master bedroom and we saw that the couple’s bed was still unmade, with urine still in the chamber pot. The children’s room was the same with bedding and a chamber pot left untouched. When we looked into the kitchen, the dishes from breakfast had not been washed and were left in a basin of dirty water.

The cleaning had, of course, not been done either. After seeing all of this with the President, I said to him, “President, would you still say that only her husband is to blame?” He replied, “No, I did not know they were living like this.”

We did not eat and continued to pray, waiting for sister W to return. In the late afternoon, when she finally came home, she was surprised to see us, saying, “Oh my, what brings you here?”

My personal reflection note with Mama Julia🌹💗 

Link 👇🏻

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