Last night as I began exercising along with a Youtube video in my living room. (YES--do not laugh--I might be dancing around--alone--in my own home--all for the sake of exercise) I had a HUGE pain in my toe. Why there had to be a boulder in my shoe. How in the world did I slip that shoe on without noticing the boulder. SO, I put the video on pause to take care of the problem. Once I got my shoe off and turned it upside down to give it a shake, out popped the culprit~
NOW, it case you cannot tell, this pebble is about the size of a small kernel of popcorn. I PROMISE you it was really painful. At first I thought I would try to keep on and hope the offending boulder would shift away from my toe. I knew from experience, this might work temporarily, but it was not a permanent answer. The best thing was to get rid of it from the get go. NOW, why did I not notice the boulder until I got going, I am not certain. Perhaps I jarred it loose in those first few moves. (NO, I am not going to demonstrate the moves.) I need to keep what dignity I have left in tact.
I was reminded (of course) of the story in the Word about the speck in my brother's eye while having a log in my own eye. What I perceived as a boulder in my own shoe was hardly worth taking my shoe off for. It is all relative. When it comes to my own sin, I am near sighted. I see your sin as being much larger than the sin before me. I do not want to take off the blinders and really examine my own guilt. It is much easier to glance down the road and shake my head in dismay at what you are doing. This is one time looking at your navel is acceptable. When examining our walk, we should be hyper vigilant. Clean up around our own backdoor before complaining about the neighbor's yard.
3 Why do you look at the [a]speck that is in your brother’s eye,
but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
4 Or how [b]can you say to your brother,
‘Let me take the [c]speck out of your eye,’
and look, the log is in your own eye?
5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye,
and then you will see clearly to take the [d]speck out of your brother’s eye!
Matthew 7:3-5
Amen, Lulu! If we can't clean up our own back yards first, we have no business even beginning to point out the sins of others. And hey, instead of pointing them out, maybe we should just love them through it.
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
HOW I have missed your comments, Martha! SO GLAD you are back!
ReplyDeleteBlessings, My Friend!