Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Lesson Never Ends...

I've been thinking lately about people's behavior.  Christians in particular.    And I sorta think we can be placed in one of two categories.

1 - Those who fully grasp the weight of their own shortcomings and because of that are able to offer love and grace to those around them. They are genuinely a joy to be around...even on their bad days.

And...

2 - There are those whose plank-filled eyes knock-out everyone they come into contact with.  They literally hurt to be around.  The plank of self-righteousness bruises and batters, unless the people around them get good at learning to dodge it...which means they please and agree i.e. duck and weave.

Over simplified?  Yes.  But true?  I think so.  

I've walked in both categories.  Sometimes flip-flopping back and forth moment by moment.  Each is a choice.  I can choose to have and be joy, or I can choose to have and be misery.  It's a choice I have every moment. Everyday.  

I choose joy.  And it's hard, and I fail often...because in my own strength, I literally want to beat some people with the plank in my eye.  

I mean realllly beat them with it.  

But I've been on the other end of that beating...and it hurts.  And it brings destruction.  That is not the legacy I choose.  I want to encourage.

The only way I can choose and be joy is Christ through me.  I can't muster up enough in me to do it on my own.  Any good that comes through me...is Him. Christ in me.

I am so very thankful for those in my life that bring joy.  Their lives speak, and live and breathe truth.  They point to Jesus, rather than to themselves.  They encourage me that it is possible to live outside myself.  To choose to dwell on good in other people and in the circumstances of life.  

And without the plank-filled beatings I've received, I may never have grasped my own destructive behavior. 


Matthew 7:3-5

New International Version (NIV)
“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.




Now, if you'll excuse me, I hear Lucy playing in the toilet upstairs.  Again.

Life lesson #50028




3 comments:

  1. YES! ;) {And I promise I am not just copying your comment on my blog. Promise.}

    Seriously, I have been both as well, and I have been the recipient of plank knocking too (good term, no?) - it;s tough.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been on both ends too. At some point we all have to choose. That's what it came down to for me-I haven't regretted it since. I would much rather rest in joy and peace than be in constant turmoil.

    ReplyDelete

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