I have a Log in My Eye

“Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,

When there is a log in your own eye?”

Matthew 7:4

I like many of you have been very troubled about the growing divisions in our world and in my own homeland.  I almost hate to go on Facebook and read the posts because there seems to be so much anger in them… anger on both sides of just about any issue.  It’s not that people have different opinions that bothers me.  What worries me how the things posted can be so easily misunderstood, how people assume not so nice things about one another… about the fact that I know and love people on all sides of the issues… people who are hurting and fearful… people who are writing things out of that hurt or worry or fear.  As a Pastor I have been struggling. What can I write or say that will be helpful?  Is there anything I can write or say that won’t lead to further anger or worry or fear?  I posted something the other day just because I thought it I was funny, not because I agreed with everything.  I just thought people needed to laugh.  Immediately I had a negative reaction so I took it down. People’s emotions are raw.

As I struggled with what to write, I remembered a time when a person I worked with and I had a bad conflict with one another.  There was anger on both sides.  In wrestling with what to do, Linda really helped me.  She said, “Since you can’t change this other person, maybe you need to look at yourself.  How are you at fault?  How do you need to change?”  With her words, the words of our Lord from Matthew 7 were ringing in my ears, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is a log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Well those words have been ringing in my ears again.  This is why I have been struggling with how to respond to what I see happening.  I have been so busy noticing what is wrong with what everyone else is saying or writing or doing… I have been so preoccupied with the speck in other eyes, that I have been blind to this fact – I have a log in my eye!  In fact I think I may have a number of logs in my eyes.

Let me share what I think some of the logs are.  One log is that I think everyone should see things the way I see them.  That’s silly.  One thing I have learned while living here in Germany is not everyone sees the world the way an American does, let alone the way I do. What’s worse is to think that anyone who disagrees with me is crazy, must not be thinking.  That is crazy.  I know smart people on all sides of these issues.  Another log is that I too often assume I have all the facts… or enough to draw right conclusions about whether something is right or wrong.  I don’t!  Sometimes I have read things online… on Facebook, that I assume to be true.  Later I found out I didn’t know everything I thought I knew.  Sometimes what I read was fake.  Related to that, I often make the false assumption that I understand why a person writes something or says that hold a certain view.  That’s a log.  I don’t know.  Often I haven’t asked them.  I haven’t listened to them.  I know from personal experience how easy it is to misread or read into things written in an email or on social media… things that were never intended.   You know what else, I sometimes only read and listen to opinions or articles that agree with me.  There is another log. I also have my own bias that can blind me.  Its hard to write or say anything without letting my own bias slip in.  Its easy to forget that my opinions, our opinions are just that – opinions.

I could go on listing the various logs I have discovered in my own eyes.  This is why, at least for me, it can be at times dangerous to write and post things online.  After all, like Jesus says, to judge the actions and words of others, while not recognizing my own faults is like trying to remove a speck rom my brother’s eye while there is a log in my own.  Think of the great damage my words might do, whether I mean them to or not.

Linda is still right.  I need to start with myself.  I need to repent of my logs, my arrogance, my pride, my blindness.  I need to look to my Savior, who carried all these things to the cross and paid the price for them with His death.  He’s an expert eye surgeon, opening my eyes to His truth, His love, His way of seeing people. 

I need Him to change me first.  After all, I have a log in my eye.  I wonder if anyone else has the same problem I do.