A friend
called yesterday. During our
conversation, she told me how she got scratched in the eye from the leaf on
some flowers when the power went out in her house the other day. Really, the laughter didn’t come from a mean
place, but over the bizarre-ness of the event.
What are the chances? Anyway, I
was sitting at the computer later in the evening when my eye felt like
something was in it. When a finger check
at the corner of my eye and a gentle rub didn’t help I had to check it more
closely in a mirror.
There I found
an eyelash poking backwards into my eye.
Yank, out it came and soon after the eye felt better. I guess I shouldn’t have laughed about my
friend’s issue and maybe I wouldn’t have suffered retribution! :) Then this morning I’m reading a familiar
passage in the Bible and I have to laugh.
And why do you look at the splinter that is in your
brother's eye, but do not see the beam that is in your
own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me pull out the
splinter in your eye, when you yourself do not see the beam that is in your own
eye? Hypocrite! First cast out the beam out of your own eye, and then you shall
see clearly to pull out the splinter that is in your brother's eye. Lk. 6:41,42
It sure feels
like a beam in your eye when it gets scratched!
Back on topic. Sometimes we
nitpick about other’s faults yet neglect to see our own glaring faults. For me, I’ve learned to not care so much
about other people’s issues because the ones that stare back at me in the
mirror are huge enough to deal with.
(Often, I am my own harshest critic.)
Why do I
still sin so much after being saved for almost 30 yrs and still act so childish
when it comes to God things? Why do I
continue to attempt to control my own life when I know by experience it is much
better when I allow God to control my life?
Why is it always such a struggle to deny myself / my flesh (Lk. 9:23) to the things it wants: sleep not exercise, candy bars not
salad, play not work, t.v. not Bible reading, games not quality time with God
or kids, idle chatter not prayer, eating food not the Word?
 |
| Heave Ho! |
There are no
easy answers. Certainly I’ve come a long
way on this journey with the Lord, but I still have such a long way to go. He is faithful to remain with me during this
long and sometimes frustrating trip. He
is faithful to remind me of this, “being confident of this very thing, that He
who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,”
(Php. 1:6) Yay, He’s gonna stick with
me!
So this beam
in my eye is still pretty big after all these years, like the tall mast on an
old sailing vessel. But with the help of
my friends, and my Best Friend of all, we will gently pull it out one
centimeter at a time. Then one day when
I look in my eyes they’ll be free and clear of all the sin and garbage of this
life. And of course by then I’ll be
forever with my Best Friend Jesus… and hopefully with you too!!!