#shorts Part 37 — Let’s Chop some Logs

We’re so good at seeing the faults of others, we see those so clearly. But when it comes to our faults, suddenly we become blind. It takes personal integrity to stop, look inside, and see how we are also guilty of the exact things we criticize in others.

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Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Time for another #shorts post.

Recently I was reading a self-help book about emotional healing (Soul healing). A big part of this book was how to improve interpersonal relations of all kinds, by working on our own issues. For the record, although I won’t quote from it today, the book was Healing the Shame that Binds You by John Bradshaw. Good book.

In the book Bradshaw explains many ways we take out our own shame on others, criticizing or punishing others for what we actually don’t like about ourselves. One of the most common ways religious people** cover up their internalized shame is self-righteousness and being judgmental toward others.

**And being religious is its own problem. Religiosity misses the point of the Gospel. The rules and regulations of religion will not Save anybody. Only Faith in Jesus Saves; religion does not Save.

Embracing the rules of religion, the over-religious make themselves feel better by judging others. By judging others they don’t have to look inside at their own sins, their own wicked thoughts and actions. They can turn their anger and self-hate outwards toward “sinners” rather than inwards.

Well, do you know the saying that what bothers us the most in other people is something we are also guilty of?? What annoys us about other people is something we hate about ourselves first?? Or that what bothers us most about others is something we subconsciously judge ourselves for also doing, and God is trying to draw our attention to this??

I don’t know who was the first person to say this, I don’t know where these sayings came from. I only know that these sayings are true. When we find something annoying (or even hateful) about another, 97.5% of the time it’s something we are also guilty of.

Does this concept sound familiar?? If it does, you’re thinking of Matthew 7. “Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye?” We’d better be careful about this … it hurts to have a log in our eye!! So let’s talk about it.

You Do it too, Bro

In Matthew 7 Jesus gives us a warning as clear as a warning can be. He says: “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.” What more does anybody need to know?? How can it be any clearer than that?? And yet we all judge sometimes, we can all fall into that trap. The urge to judge is a human failing, I guess.

Judgment belongs to the LORD, not us. But if we take it upon ourselves to judge others—or more accurately, if we fall to the temptation of judging—we’ll receive the exact same judgment we give out. Whatever we deal out will be dealt to us.

In verses 3 to 5 Jesus further warns us about our hypocrisy in judging. We judge others for what we ourselves do. We see a splinter in their eye but don’t see the log in ours!! Check for logs before you tell anyone anything about their splinters, Jesus says. That only makes sense, yes??

(1) “Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged. (2) You’ll receive the same judgment you give. Whatever you deal out will be dealt out to you. (3) Why do you see the splinter that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye, but don’t notice the log in your own eye? (4) How can you say to your brother or sister, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ when there’s a log in your eye? (5) You deceive yourself! First take the log out of your eye, and then you’ll see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s or sister’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5 (CEB)

Verses 3 to 5 surely must be the origin of those sayings I mentioned above. What angers us the most about others are things we are also guilty of. We get annoyed with the splinters in other people’s eyes, but we have a bigger problem of our own that we ignore!!

We’re so good at seeing the faults of others, we see those so clearly. But when it comes to our faults, suddenly we become blind. It takes personal integrity to stop, look inside, and see how we are also guilty of the exact things we criticize in others.

Chop-Chop

From now on, when we detect a “splinter” in another person’s eye, we know it’s time to look inside ourselves and check for logs. Every occasion we detect a splinter is an opportunity to detect our own logs. If we make a habit of doing this, we’ll get pretty damn good at finding logs.

Let’s connect with our inner lumberjack and cut down those damn logs!!

Because the logs in our eyes are the advanced versions of the splinters in our brother’s eye. Whatever they do that annoys or angers us, we do the same thing and probably do it worse. If we’re honest with ourselves and take time to look inside, we can see for ourselves.

And even when this isn’t the case, in those 2.5% of cases where their splinter is not something we do, we mustn’t judge anyway. Jesus warned us not to. The exact same standards we impose on others will be imposed on us too. If our judgment of them is harsh, God will judge us the same way.

Judgment belongs to God, not us. It’s tempting to judge others because by doing so we can for a moment turn our inner anger and self-hatred away from ourselves. This is why self-righteousness and being judgmental are very common cover-up tactics for hiding our internalized shame. But ignoring this shame about our flaws and sins (the logs in our eye) doesn’t help us at all. Jesus tells us to get the logs out of our eyes if we want to see clearly.

So, when faced with the temptation of judging others we should respond with Patience. We should make a conscious mental effort to bring Patience to the situation. The more we practice this, the better we’ll get. Patience gives us time to stop ourselves and do a log check before we launch into a foolish splinter hunt.

Let’s be Patient with everyone and try to tolerate as many splinters as we encounter, remembering that only Jesus is perfect. The splinters in other’s eyes become much more tolerable when we remember we all have faults. To get angry at others for not being perfect like Jesus is holding them to an impossible, anti-human standard.

To be self-righteous, mega-moralizing, and judgmental as if we are perfect is prideful, blasphemous idolatry of ourselves.

So let me repeat myself. When we see the splinter in our brother’s eye, let’s make it a habit to connect with our inner lumberjack. That’s the exact time to look for logs and cut those things down!!

That’s it for #shorts Part 37.

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Your new best friend in Christ,

99:9

<<<EXALT THE LORD OUR GOD AND WORSHIP AT HIS HOLY HILL; FOR THE LORD OUR GOD IS HOLY>>>

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