No One Is On The Higher Road

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.