“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3).
This question is meant to be answered. Someone once told me, “We see ourselves with rose-colored glasses; we see others with magnifying glasses.”
Why DO we so easily see the faults of others, but not our own?
With our eyes, we drink in the world around us. We think we see so clearly. In fact, we do not see as clearly as we think we do (cf. John 7:24). Appearances are often deceiving.
- The guy coming out of the bar may have just been servicing the cooler.
• The girl who always takes the lead may just be overcompensating for deep insecurity.
• The highly-successful star athlete may just want his dad to notice him.
The only person we really can see is the self. Even then, we have the ability to deceive.
We can erect interior walls in this house. We may even build a maze. We most certainly build closets.
We are not our body or our feelings. We are not our inclinations or experiences. We are the person watching them in the theater of the mind.
- We are connected, yet separate from those things.
• We are observing our decisions, our thoughts, our memories.
• That is who we really are.
The degree to which we know ourselves is the degree to which we can answer Jesus’ question. If we spend all our time in “outer” space, we won’t even hear the question. We’ll think its rhetorical.
Superficiality is like eating candy. It’s cheap. It’s accessible. It tastes good. This is how most people live.
Living introspectively is a challenge. It takes time and effort to be honest, to clean our own house.
- It humbles us.
• It makes us less quick to judge.
• It makes us quicker to extend mercy.
• It makes us compassionate and vulnerable.
How many people do you work with who are like this? Family members? Fellow Christians?
You can sense who introspective people are by their humility, patience, mercy, compassion and unconventional honesty.
Why do we see the speck? Because logs are harder to move.