Reflection for July 8, 2015

"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye."(Matthew 7:5)

With so much change happening in our world and especially in the world of morals and ethics a new rise in righteous indignation and judgmental behavior is happening along with it.

While I firmly believe that dialogue on issues is important, especially if we are to gain a better understanding of where others who may not see it the same way, that is not the same thing as making pronouncements of my being right and you being wrong.

When we talk of personal relationships with Jesus I believe it is important to consider the invitation to self examination before I decide to become judge of the world.  The problem of course is that I can't see what others have wrong in their lives if I'm not clear about what is wrong with my own.  The log keeps me from seeing and in fact may be so huge that I just give up and move onto focusing on other people's behavior.  That's much easier but because I really can't see I'll probably wind up doing more harm than good.

A little further in this chapter Jesus gives us his version of the Golden Rule "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets."  I'd rather work on my own logs and will allow others to do the same.

Blessings,
Ed