Looking Within

“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, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” – Matthew 7:3-5 (NIV)

How easily do you see the specks in other’s eyes? Do you have a plank in your own? What is Jesus trying to teach here? Do we have ears to hear?

A couple of days ago I was having one bad day. I suppose we all have them, those days where things seem to pile up. It started off good enough, but when I finally got to my computer and opened up my e-mail I was greeted with loads of bad news.
By the time I finished reading through those e-mails I was quite upset. I was upset with how people act, I was upset with what people don’t do, and I was going about blaming people for it.
In the course of being upset I found some angry music to listen to on my phone. I thought, “Good something to help me feel how I feel.” I listened to such music for about half an hour or so until my phone received a call. It was not a happy phone call either and I was beginning to feel overwhelmed with frustration.
After the phone call I pushed the button to resume my angry music selection and yet something else came on instead. It was a gospel song and maybe you know it. A grand voice cried out, “It’s me, it’s me, it’s me O Lord standing in the need of prayer.”
How that song got on I do not know… perhaps it was one of those minor miracles we call a coincidence. I call it a miracle and it forced me to stop worrying about others and realize that I have a lot to change about myself before I can go worrying about how others need to change.

That is what Jesus was concerned about as he spoke about planks in eyes. It becomes so easy for us to look at the obvious faults of others that we can somehow ignore our own obvious faults completely. I was not taking time realizing I needed to change. Instead I allowed my anger to keep me wondering why everyone else was so messed up. Somehow through a minor miracle that others might call a glitch of technology I realized that indeed I stood and still stand in the need of prayer myself. If we all take the time to work on ourselves, I cannot imagine the ways in which we can change the world.

With hope and joy,
Garrett

Minister's Minute from June Issue of the Journal of Hope and Joy

Here I am late at night, sitting in front of my computer feeling like an author dealing with a deadline. That happens sometimes with these “Minister’s Minutes.” The newsletter is ready to go out and all that is still needed is my part, and for the life of me I can’t think of anything. Melinda has gone to bed, but before she left me to my task she listened to me briefly complain about not having anything to write. I am both blessed and cursed with a wife who is often wiser than me. She looked at me without any pity (which is all I wanted) and said, “Why don’t you write about how we all want to be better people? Say something about how it is hard, and how we need to keep trying in the moment we have as opposed to thinking too far into the future.” Then she smiled, gave me a kiss and left.
I have no idea how to prove we all want to be better people, because there have been times each of us felt like we were fine the way we were. I have no idea if I can prove, or should even attempt to prove that we each want to be a better person, but I hope it is true. I hope that each of us can look deep inside ourselves and realize no matter how well we are put together that we can be better. I hope that the people we are now are not the people we will always be. I hope my faults, the small ones and the big ones, won’t always be. If grace is what grace is and work is what work is surely together grace and work can make me become a better person to myself, my friends, my family, and most assuredly my God.
Those who are Christians find inspiration to become better from the person of Jesus. In his humanity we see our lack of humanity, and there is something about his humanity that beckons us, that calls us to throw away our brokenness and lean forward into wholeness. Often the example of Jesus is too much though. We think to ourselves, “I am no Jesus, I am not even close and I never will be.” And so we leave it at that, no better than we were before because the goal seems so far away.
Of course should we lose hope when examining Jesus’ example we are poor students of scripture. It appears that God calls those who must become better. No one started off where they ended up. Many were called by God and said, “God you have the wrong person I can’t do this, I’m not good enough.” And it is as though God said, “You’re not good enough yet, but I’m not done with you.” Read some scripture if you don’t believe me. Read about Abraham and Sarah, read about Jacob and Moses, read about Sampson and David, read about Elijah and Jeremiah, read about a group of disciples who never seem to get it, and a man named Paul who once wrote, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” but also had the wherewithal and faith to write right after that, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Why was Paul given hope that his wretchedness wasn’t the end of him when dealing with God? I am sure there were many reasons, but one from that old Sunday school song must have been at the forefront of his mind, “Jesus loves me this I know.”
The thing about being loved is that it makes us want to become better people. Maybe it has something to do with the people who love us, as though we want to become the person they think we can be. Melinda is right though, this is process and not some future we can just jump into. Each day we can become a little better when we let love guide us. I know this is true because I watch my wife. A couple of days ago I was trying to get Langston to say some words. Eventually I tried to get him to say “love.” “Langston, say ‘love,’” I said. He said, “Mommy,” and Melinda overheard him. When she went to bed tonight kissing me before she left, she went to sleep in his room since she knows she will miss him when she goes out of town to see a friend. For my little boy mommy is love, and therefore his mommy wants to become the best mommy she can be one day at a time. If we asked Jesus to say “love” I wonder if he might just say our name. Hmm, that makes me want to become the best me I can be one day at a time.

Riding the Wave of the Holy Spirit,
Garrett