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Farsighted

Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.

Luke 6:42

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:5

Well, school is back in session. That means I am back to getting up at 530 and cooking breakfast for the girls.

This morning I stumbled to the kitchen and began to gather from the refrigerator the staples for packing lunches and fixing breakfast.

I reached for the mayo, lunch meat, tomato, lettuce…maybe an avocado…the sausage…butter of course…ah yes, we’ll need the jelly…I will need the creamer.

I spread everything out onto the counter. Firstly, I would need to get the oven on to heat up, but to what temperature? I whirled the can biscuits around to the direction side and stared at the wrap. I pulled the container closer and then to arm’s length. I am sure I looked like I was trying to play the trombone! Back and forth I adjusted the biscuits to different distances hoping I could read the temperature needed to bake them. However, no matter how I tried the package looked as if I was peering through a kaleidoscope.

I looked through my purse, looked in the living room on the desk and l finally found my reading glasses. I adjusted temperatures and began my morning duties.

As I built sandwiches to explicit specifications, I thought about my vision and people’s vision in general.

I have no trouble seeing for miles. The leaves in the trees are clear, street signs, the TV all easily seen. However, when it comes to the up close things, I have a handicap.

I think most of us do when it comes to personal up close things in our lives. I have no trouble seeing what I think are faults in other people.

“Why did she wear that?”

“Why doesn’t he just divorce her?” “How can she stand to live like that?”

“I can’t believe they spent their money on……”

And it is not just confined to friends, family and coworkers! Oh no, I can go through the gamut with a complete stranger in the grocery line.

However, after you read Matthew 7:1-5 and Luke 6:41-42, you see it is certainly nothing new. It is effortless to spot and criticize another’s blunders and ignore our own. After all it is much easier to give an opinion rather than working through our own shortcomings. Correcting ill behavior in ourselves is no easy task. It takes courage to take a hard and honest look inside our heart and then take responsibility.

Jesus’ parable was directed to the Pharisees. They spent their time working on new rules and passing judgment on their people, but the lesson is for us still today. We spend a lot of our time comparing ourselves to others. By pointing out where they are lacking, we make ourselves feel better.

Yet, when our time is come and we face the Father, he will not compare us to any other. Instead, we will answer for our own failures. Matthew 7:2 and Luke 6:37 warn us that the measure we use to gauge others will be used against us.

That is pretty sobering; I know that often I can be very harsh in my appraisal of others. So the next time I am examining the motives, actions or words of another, I think I will first see what I can do about my beam.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23