Judge Nothing Before the Time - Story

A Story by Domenic Marbaniang © 2012

“Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes… Then each one’s praise will come from God.” (1 Corinthians 4:5)


The Stadium was filled with cheers, applauses, and feverish excitement. The runners all took positions and geared up waiting for the signal shot. Gerald sensed the sublimity too. The seconds of time between the start and finish line of the 100 meter track was all the reality that meant everything to him. All of space-time was crammed therein for him now. He felt highly elated. After seven years of rigorous training, throughout which his formidable form had emerged as the unbeatable image to all, he was now on the test to prove to the world that it now had the giant of athletics it had long been waiting for.

He had watched the other competitors and marked their dispositions. Some looked quite confident. He scoffed at them in his heart. In his heart he said to them, “This will be the day to break your pride, man!” There were one or two who looked rather fearful and apprehensive; they had taken one or two glances at Gerald and then quickly turned away from his piercing glances. “Cowards!” he spoke within himself again, “How did you even land up here?” He shook his head in disbelief. A skinny little chap was positioned next to him. Gerald chuckled to himself. “Lilliputs too!” he thought and shook his head again thinking “This is impossible! This race looks far from competitive at all!”

The crowd admired the physique and lion-like features of Gerald. The old folks betted for him and the young girls watched him with admiration, smiles on their face, each feeling, as it seemed, that it was she and he alone there in the whole of the Stadium. The young boys posted his image on the walls of their brains as their model. The small kids, however, wished that they were the ones running all over the ground. The TV broadcasters were busy switching clips between the athletes, especially Gerald, and faces in the crowd.

Just then the shot was fired and the runners plunged into the race. The cheers and applause got thicker. As expected, Gerald was way ahead of all others. At the very beginning, he had seen one boy, positioned a little ahead, lose balance and fall. It didn’t occur as strange to Gerald at all. In a few seconds, he had bulleted ahead of all others and was pounding the ground like a leopard in full heat. He knew that he was unbeatable. He was happy that he would win the prize. A few leaps more and he would break the finish line. Knowing that he was way ahead of all, he slowed his pace a little bit down. Just then, the skinny little boy overtook him like a bolt from the blue. Gerald was shocked and stunned; he staggered with confusion, a muscle twitched and in a second he was down with excruciating pain. Many in the crowd slumped on their seats with gasped breath. Some stood motionless watching, waiting for some miracle. The girls and the boys almost felt like weeping; but, the children laughed: they laughed, of course, because they thought it was a kind of clownish joke. But, there laid the great Gerald panting and watching. The little chap whom he had despised flashed off and ripped the finish line with his skinny chest; then, everyone else passed him by. The unbeatable was now down on the ground. Medical men ran up to him spraying and working at his ankle. He was lifted and taken away from the ground.

Later, someone asked him what had happened wrong. He answered with sadness: “I forgot that I was just a runner, not the judge, and that I was not supposed to judge anything or anyone before I had touched the finish line. This race has reminded me that no one is unbeatable, anyone can fall and miss the line; therefore, do not judge anyone before the time.”