“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”1
Ken Crockett, in his book, I Once Was Blind, But Now I Squint, shares the experience of Pastor Ed Manning who told “about a situation when a woman approached him to ask a question. As she drew closer to him, he tipped his head back to look through the bottom lenses of his bifocals to focus on her more clearly. ‘There you go again!’ the woman exploded. ‘You stick your nose up in the air every time I talk to you! Who do you think you are? I’m sick of your arrogant attitude!’
“Manning was taken aback by her outburst of anger. ‘You don’t understand,’ he explained. ‘I’m not sticking my nose up in the air at you. I just can’t see you when you get near me. I’m tilting my head back so I can see you through the bottom half of my bifocals.’”2
Sound familiar?
Blaise Pascal said, “We view things not only from different sides but with different eyes.” Or to put it another way, “We see things not the way they are, but the way we are.”
For instance, if I have unresolved anger, I will see things through angry, critical eyes. If have unresolved fears, I will view things through fearful eyes. If I have a negative attitude, I will look at things through negative eyes. If I am insecure, I will see things through insecure eyes. If I am a jealous person, I will view things through jealous eyes. If I am a cheat, I will see things through cheating eyes, and so on.
Whatever I see—the way I see it will always be twisted to match my distorted perception of reality and in so doing I will rationalize my every thought and justify my every action. A very unhealthy and self-defeating way to live.
Any wonder that Jesus said that if we are going to see things the way they are, we need to see the plank in our own eye and get rid of that. It is true, what I see is who I am. It is equally true, if I am a loving person, I will see things through loving eyes.
Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please open my eyes so that I will see clearly who I am—warts and all—and help me to get rid of any specks and all planks in my eye so I will see the truth as it is and not as I distort or want it to be. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”
1. Matthew 7:3 (NIV).
2. From I Once Was Blind, But Now I Squint, by Kent Crockett, AMG Publishers/Living Ink. See http://tinyurl.com/8kesa
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