Planks for the memories!

Matthew 7:3 - “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?

So why did I start my blog with this verse? As I have stated before, I write from my experiences… not of past but present. These past few weeks, my son has been with me almost every day, all day. During the summer, my daily activities change as a result. I became more observant of my sons habits and attitude. A lot of these bothered me.

If something or someone bothers me a lot then there is something in me that I need to examine. If it bothers me so, then I must deal with it. For when I deal with those things and examine myself I become more tolerant of others.

Sometimes there are things that I react so strongly to because I have strong emotional connections to the issue. Even though I grew up with a father who was present…he really wasn’t. My father had issues, mainly selfishness, self-indulgence and addictions. As a result, I became judgmental and skeptical of all men. Always looking for them to fail me and others.

A few years ago, God broke my heart on purpose...I really believe this to be true. He did this to rebuild me more into the man of God I was supposed to be. He did this so that I could be a better Father to my son. He did this so I could be a better witness of and for him.

How? The rebuilding process involved self-examination. To properly self-examine yourself you need examples and God put those good examples in front of me.  He provided me a strong foundation to rebuild my life.

 In the verse Matthew 7:3, Jesus is teaching us to morally examine ourselves. A follower of Jesus needs to ask the hard questions of his or herself. Take a close look at them and become self-aware. Who you are? Who God has created you to be? Have I acted selfishly? Have I truly loved others? Have I prejudged anyone? Have I sought out to contribute?  What actions have hurt others? What do I need to do to make amends?

Without a moral inventory and without knowledge of ourselves we are just play acting—hypocrites. We look good on the outside and looks like we have our act together. But we don’t. None of us really do. This is what faith is really about. I don’t have all the answers. But God does. And He is a great, big God! He knows all and is all powerful.

I have become convinced why many so called Christians never get it, so to speak, they never really change nor know how to take a total reflective inventory of their life and past. We just pray for Jesus to forgive us and then go right back to doing what we have always done. If you do what you always done, the way that you have always done it, then you will always get what you have always gotten.

Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way expecting different results.

With God’s help (and other people’s) we seek to remove those things that get in the way of serving God and loving others. Each day ask God to show you your faults and examining the previous day’s events.

Telling someone your faults has been a long practiced Christian aspect. You don’t need a pastor to do this. Just someone who you are comfortable with and you can trust to keep your trash confidential. If someone asks you to be their confessor, remember confidentiality and that you are not to give advice, judge, or criticize. Simply listen and encourage them to take the next steps of forgiving oneself and/or making amends. Remind them of God’s grace.

Grace doesn’t mean that we never have to work for God. It just means that we can’t earn God’s favor through the work that we do. We must realize that self-indulgences not only affect ourselves but they affect others because they limit our ability to give. This in turn helps us realize that my community does have a claim on me. I am responsible to my community.

Basically when we can get the planks out of our eyes, we have new sight through which we see the world. We all have armor that keeps us safe. We also have rips in that armor where we’ve been hurt. Self-examination helps us see beyond those wounds. Grace helps us smooth over those rough spots so that those character defects aren’t so glaring.

It helps us look past the rough edges in ourselves and others. Take the plank out of your eye and use it to build a stronger bridge to the Lord!