judgment

Removing Logs

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LogPerspective

Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 47; 147:12-20, Jeremiah 31:1-14, Colossians 2:8-23, Luke 6:39-49

Point your index finger straight up. Keeping both eyes open, move your finger slowly toward one eye until it rests against your eyelashes. Notice what happens: even though you know it’s there, your brain compensates and most of your finger disappears from sight. To actually see it, you have to close the other eye or make some pretty marked adjustments to how you see things.

Now think of the proverbial logs in our eyes. At first they are irritating or distracting, but over time we adjust. We look past our self-involvement and call it common sense. Our judgmental log fades into a haze we like to call high expectations. Apathy blends into a background of alleged maturity. The log is more than a metaphor for our perception. Perception itself is a product of the brain, the physical tool we shape and re-shape with each choice and decision. Every time we ignore our own selfishness, for example, we are that much more likely to be selfish again. To adjust our behavior to the point where we are more concerned with our own logs than with our neighbor’s speck, we must make the (sometimes great) effort to intentionally refocus our mental and spiritual perception.

Why are we so preoccupied with our neighbor’s speck anyway? Partly because it distracts us from examining our own flaws too closely. But isn’t it also true that what we find most irritating about others is often what we don’t like about ourselves? Perhaps the speck we see is really a familiar log viewed through our own skewed perspective.

Once we honestly set about the task of learning to see clearly, we inevitably begin to think more clearly. When we think clearly, we develop the understanding and compassion Jesus wants us to have for ourselves and others. We can’t feel real compassion for others until we understand our own shortcomings and have compassion for ourselves. Though this doesn’t mean we can keep carrying our logs – Jesus does call us to remove them, after all. And isn’t it easier to find our way through the world once they’re gone?

Comfort: God is always ready to help us remove the logs.

Challenge: Be brave, and ask someone you trust to point out a few of the logs that might be weighing you down.

Prayer: Teach me, Lord, to see myself clearly. Amen.

Discussion: As you go through life, do you find you have more or fewer enemies?

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Mob Mentality

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 116; 147:12-20, Hosea 4:1-10, Acts 21:27-36, Luke 6:1-11

Poor Paul. As if his actions weren’t polarizing enough, the Jews in the Jerusalem temple were ready to string him up for things he hadn’t done. They only had to say Paul had brought Greeks into the temple (he hadn’t), and the crowd dragged him outside, barred the doors, and beat him. Reaction was swift, forceful – and completely unwarranted.

Have you ever found yourself caught up in a mob mentality? A mob isn’t always a crowd of torch-wielding villagers. In our age of instant communication, the mob may be virtual, but it is no less infectious. We condemn or canonize people over a single image or sound bite. Technology has made it almost impossible to resist crossing the line from observer to participant. Take political campaigns: aren’t we more likely to repeat and re-post negative things about the opposition? Toss in the need of politicians to “spin” a situation to manage immediate public perception, and careers – even lives – are ruined by a media-driven mob. Even seemingly positive behaviors – for example, responses to natural disasters – are made less effective by mob mentality. Charitable organizations frequently waste donations that arrive in unmanageably large quantities at the beginning of a disaster recovery, then later run short, because people respond as a well-intentioned mob, rather than waiting to assess long-term needs.

The slow-burning mob, like the one that plotted against Jesus as his teachings began to threaten the status quo, is especially insidious. Today terms like “whisper campaign” describe indirect attacks meant to destroy a person’s reputation. Rather than appealing to a sense of outrage, this type of attack appeals to the ego; we all like to feel like we are “in the know” and a whisper campaign helps us believe we are privy to insider information. We can become part of a mob without ever knowing it. The seeds planted by the Pharisees at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry help prime the mob that eventually yells “Crucify him!”

As people of faith, we must temper our reactions with love and patience. As the hands of Christ, we do not swing blindly at shadows.

Comfort: God made us capable of thoughtful action and reaction.

Challenge: Fact check even the claims you are inclined to agree with.

Prayer: Glorious Creator, thank you for the gift of discernment. Amen.

Discussion: Have you been part of a physical or social mob and later regretted it?

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Welcome to the Disreputable Brood

/ JJS / 4 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 119:49-72, Job 30:1–31, Acts 14:19-28. John 11:1-16

While describing his miserable lot, Job says the children of men he “would have disdained to set with the dogs” of his flock are now mocking him. He calls them a “senseless, disreputable brood” and offers as evidence the difficult lives they have led since being “driven out from society.” However, despite his own struggles, he does not seem to empathize with them. He claims to have “wept for those in trouble” and “grieved for the poor,” but his sympathies have definite limits. If irony were money his wealth would have been restored.

We can be a lot like Job. When bad things happen to us, we call it unfair. When bad things happen to other people, especially because of their own choices, part of us wants to believe things would have been different for us. Job’s friends insist he must be guilty of something partly because they are terrified to contemplate a world where they might suffer the same lot. In a less obvious way even young Elihu, who does not find Job guilty of anything, separates himself from Job by claiming Job’s suffering must be meant to instruct him in some special way. Not one of them accepts that fortune and misfortune are blind to virtue.

We don’t like to admit virtue is largely a matter of circumstance. While there are a few people of extraordinary character who rise above terrible experiences, and a few who are evil despite almost ideal upbringings, most of us are in large part who we were raised to be. We can’t honestly claim we are good (or better) in and of ourselves. A universe that favored the virtuous would actually be a universe that favored the lucky. God loves us all equally – lucky and unlucky, righteous and unrighteous – whether we are Job or the disreputable brood.

Why strive to be virtuous at all then? Because we seek a right relationship with God at all times. Not to earn God’s love or grace which are given freely, but to experience the eternal life – even in times of suffering – promised to us by Jesus.

Comfort: God understands and loves us all.

Challenge: Share a meal or cup of coffee with someone who is going through a bad time. Do not pity or advise them – just be there.

Prayer: God of earth and seed, plant empathy in my heart. Amen.

Discussion: Have you ever gotten into a debate that generated a lot of heat and little or no light?

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More Than Good Enough

/ JJS / 2 Comments

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Today’s readings (click below to open in new tab/window):
Psalms 19; 150, Judges 16:15-31, 2 Corinthians 13:1-11, Mark 5:25-34

Today we reach the end of the story of Samson. He has been unlikable, dull-witted, egotistical, impulsive, deceptive, a fatally sore loser, and more than a bit of a hound. In the plus column: he was physically strong because from birth he was consecrated to God as a Nazirite. His role as the God-appointed judge of Israel was “to begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” He accomplished his goal in spectacularly bloody fashion and died without revealing a single redeeming character trait. Charitably, he is not a poster child for righteousness. And that is why we should thank him.

If we can put aside our feelings about the violence of the story (although it may not bother some of us), we can take away an important lesson: God works with what we have to give. We may not have slain anyone because we lost a bet, or burned down entire farms because of a bad breakup, but we have plenty of our own flaws and self-destructive tendencies. God knows this, and is willing to work with us anyway.

It’s easy to think of ourselves or someone else as too flawed to be instruments of God. After all, God knows about the faults the rest of the world sees, and also those we manage to hide from everyone else. Shame, modesty, or both tell us we aren’t good enough to be of any real use to God. Judgment tells us someone else isn’t. When we picture a “servant of the Lord” that picture doesn’t usually include co-dependence, bad credit, or a pornography habit—all of which are small potatoes compared to Samson’s indiscretions. God will choose who God will choose, and our opinion doesn’t carry a lot of weight—especially when God chooses us. Moses tried to beg off because of a speech impediment, and Paul spoke frequently of an unidentified “thorn in his flesh” that kept him humble despite his importance.

We should try to correct our flaws, but rather than letting them define us, let’s try to see how God might be working in us, and in others.

Comfort: No matter how cracked, we are valuable vessels to God.

Challenge: When you find yourself judging someone, think about the hidden strengths God may have given her or him.

Prayer: God of healing, work through me as you will. Amen.

Discussion: Some psychological theories say the flip side of every virtue is a vice. Have you ever found that to be true?

For thoughts on today’s text from Mark, also see Go In Peace.

Join the discussion! If you enjoyed this post, feel free to join an extended discussion as part of the C+C Facebook group. You’ll be notified of new posts through FB, and have the opportunity to share your thoughts with some lovely people. Or feel free to comment here on WordPress, or even re-blog – the more the merrier!

Invitation: Locker Room

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Earlier this week, while changing in the locker room, I heard a guy repeatedly cursing repeatedly and making a barking sound which may have been a laugh. Another guy was on his cell phone calling off work. I thought the first guy was rudely interrupting the second, until I turned around and saw they were the same guy. This man was having a particularly bad flare up of Tourette’s Syndrome, and needed time off. A few minutes later I was on my usual elliptical machine and working out with music pumping into my ear buds. When the first song ended, I could hear the barking sound echoing through the gym. Continue reading →

Invitation: No Expectations

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You can’t advertise an open house and then be irritated when unexpected guests show up. Several weeks ago I wrote about the interlopers, a couple cats who now eat the food we originally began to set out for one specific cat, who doesn’t visit us much anymore. A couple other cats have joined them and there’s at least one very well-fed squirrel frequenting our back yard. Continue reading →

You Don’t Know Me

/ JJS / 1 Comment

Today’s readings: Psalms 46 or 47; 149, Isaiah 45:14-19, Colossians 1:24-2:7, John 8:12-19

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Judgment: to some degree, we’re all guilty of of it. At our best we can take a mental step back and move beyond it. At our less-than-best, we’re capable of doling out some pretty shabby treatment. Why do we judge? Sometimes it’s out of fear. Other times it’s because we see traits reflected in others that we don’t like in ourselves. Once in a while it’s because we need to believe someone did something wrong — usually defining “wrong” as something we haven’t done or been caught doing — that caused their illness, death, poverty, unemployment, public shame, prison sentence, or other problem. After all, the unacceptable alternative would be to admit that under the same circumstances we might have the same outcome, rather than convince ourselves we are saved by our virtue. Continue reading →