Matthew 7:1-5
“Judge not, that you be not judged.
Why do you see the speck that is in your
brother’s eye
But do not notice the log that is in your
own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of
your own eye,
And then you will see clearly to take the
speck out of your brother’s eye.”
I have lived long
enough to realize that the thing that bothers me most in the behavior of others
is my own behavior being reflected back to me.
That is why I am so good at detecting it. Looking through the log often enhances the
behavior of others, which makes me really angry at it. Therefore, who am I to judge? I need to deal with myself first.
If that is true on
a personal level it is also true on a national level. We recognize the bad behavior of terrorists
because our own country was seeded by acts of terror, much of it for the same
reasons…power and control of the lives and beliefs of others and power and
control of the land. It is sad and scary
to think that at heart we are no different than those committed to groups like
Al-Qaeda and ISIS .
Our pride tells us
we are the smart ones, not the savages.
But at heart we were the savages and terrorists to Indians, Mexicans,
and any others who didn’t agree with us.
During the Civil War we brought the battle home to ourselves. What goes around comes around and wars will
never cease until all sides recognize their commonly flawed humanity and begin
on getting the log out of their own eye.
