The road to recovery

I was listening to a political activist from the Republican party today ranting about the state that our country is in.  He went through this whole laundry list of problems that are afflicting our country, and at the end his basic summary was that the Democrats are to blame for it all.  It would have been laughable if he wasn't serious.  But even more disconcerting is that this kind of finger-pointing is not limited to Republicans.  Democrats do it, too.  Libertarians, Tea Party members, big businesses, small businesses, rich people, poor people, whites, blacks....we all have a habit of blaming our problems on someone else. 

Now I don't deny that this country is having problems.  Whatever your ideology, whatever your reasoning, it's hard to argue that there are major issues in our nation.  But the thing that can be argued is who is to blame for them.  Jesus said that we should remove the plank from our own eye, before we try to get the sawdust out of our neighbor's eye.  What did he mean by that?  I'm sure that most people, on hearing this, would have thought to themselves, "what's Jesus talking about?  I can see just fine."  


But Jesus was illustrating a simple, yet profound point about humanity.  We all have a tendency to pass the buck, to point the finger, to place judgement anywhere but on ourselves.  We all are, in essence, hypocrites.  A hypocrite is someone who expects something of someone else that they are unwilling to do themselves.  And instead of accepting the blame and working to fix the problem, we instead choose to pass the blame onto someone else.  

But that's a sign of immaturity.  Mature people don't look for someone to blame; they look for something to do.  Do you think there are problems in your family, your city, your country?  Then do something about it.  The road to recovery always begins with "me," not "you."  It begins with "we," not "they."  Take a stand for something that you believe in.  Can you imagine what would happen if an entire nation of Christians did the same?

Matthew 7:3-5

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? ⁴ 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? ⁵ 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.

Do unto others....

This whole weekend, the only thing that I wanted was a friend.  I had too much to do, too much drama to handle, and too few people I felt I could count on.  I would have given almost anything for a friendly note, an encouraging hug, a kind smile.  I started much of the weekend by having a pity party for myself.  "Why does life have to be so hard?" I whined to myself.  What have I done to deserve this??  I was really in a very grumpy and un-charitable mood for the end of the week. 

But then I realized that complaining about life will never make me happy, nor will it make anything any better.  God has called us to love others, no matter how they treat us.  His word says to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  And what I really wanted was a friendly note.  So I sat down and wrote a friendly note to everyone in my program....all 96 of them.  It took me several days, writing several hours every day.  It wore me out; I wanted to stop wayyyy before I got to 96.  But I really felt like I needed to do this, so I did.

The response that I got was overwhelming.  By the time I got back from putting them on everyone's doors, I had 2 hand-written thank-you notes on my own door.  Since then I've gotten another one, plus a grand total of approximately 25 email messages, all saying basically the same thing - that I was stressed and tired and worn out, and this note was just the pick-me-up I needed.  It's been so amazingly encouraging.  I'm near tears....but this time in a good way :).

So often we want others to give us the benefit of the doubt, but we judge them by their actions.  We know that stresses in our lives will affect how we treat others; but we forget that it will do the same with others.  Be merciful to people around you.  When you want to do anything in the world but love them, do exactly what you want done to you....and love them anyway. 

Matthew 7:7-12

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
   ⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.