It's not you, it's me

"you hypocrite"

Luke 6:42

I went to a function recently where a friend of mine happened to be speaking.   She was just introducing someone else, so her time "in the spotlight" was brief.  But as she walked up the center aisle, and past me, I noticed that she had a sticker on the back of her shirt.  It was one of those stickers that shows the size of the item.  Apparently, as she removed all the tags from her new shirt, she had missed one.   It wasn't terrifically obvious; as a matter of fact, when I first saw it, I thought it was part of the design of her shirt.  All of this realization ran through my head in the milliseconds it took her to walk past me, and I briefly considered stopping her and removing the sticker for her.  But I quickly realized that my doing so would only draw attention to it, when as it was, probably only a few people were noticing.

So I did nothing.  My heart was in the right place, wanting to solve a problem she didn't even know she had, but I thought better of it.   And you know what the whole episode made me think of?  The passage in the gospels (Matthew and Luke) about the plank and the speck.

You know the one.  It's only a couple of verses long, but it's one of the most powerful parables Jesus spoke.  Not that all of His parables weren't good.  He was quite the Orator.  Maybe that has something to do with being The Word.  Hmm.....

Anyhow, Jesus said, in that parable:  "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?  How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I think one of the reasons this parable is so meaningful, is that we really do have a tendency to focus on others when it comes to people-improvement.  Which is odd, because the rest of the time we're pretty self-focused, aren't we?   But it could just as easily have been me, with a sticker on my shirt, or a tag sticking out, or my hair doing that "woo-hoo" thing in the back.  {You know how it is, I'm sure...}

Years ago, I told the Apple of my Eye that whenever I say to him, "How do I look?" that I don't just mean "does this skirt go with this top?", I mean I want him to look for tags and my slip showing, etc.  I need him to look for things I can't see.

That's what we need from God, too.  Psalm 139:1 says, "You have searched me and known me, O Lord." And in verse 23, a request, "Search me, O God, and know my heart."  We need Him to show us the things we can't see in ourselves, whether it's a plank or a speck.  Then we will have the time, and energy to help someone else.

Helping others should be a joy and a privilege, and it is something we are called to.  And it's not something we should take lightly.  But a condescending attempt to do so, when we ourselves have issues we need to take care of, is hypocritical.  That's when we're in danger of judging others.  And the lesson is not that we shouldn't tuck in a tag or remove a sticker for a friend; the lesson is to never stop seeking to deal with our own planks.

~ "Teach me what I cannot see;

if I have done wrong, I will not do so again." ~

Job 34:32

~ "Each of us should please our neighbors,

for their good, to build them up." ~

Romans 15:2