A Speck In My Eye

Last night I was washing my face and accidentally got a little piece of my exfoliant in my eye. One tiny piece and the pain was excruciating! Thankfully I finally fell asleep, but when my husband's alarm sounded at 3:30 a.m., I woke up and it felt like someone was sticking a toothpick in my eye.

I tried everything to get it out. Finally I was free of that thing at around 10:30 this morning. Weird how a thing like this can remind you of something from the Bible. In Luke 6:42 it says, "How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

Well, I didn't have a plank, but the speck in my eye made me think about how people judge. I live in a town filled with judgment. Without knowing anything at all about your life, your circumstances, your current troubles, people will judge you harshly. In fact, we live in a world that (I think thanks in part to social media) allows us to say whatever we think about anything without really knowing all the facts.

I do believe in right and wrong, but I also believe that only God can truly judge our hearts and He's the only one who really knows the circumstances of our lives. He also is the ONLY ONE who can tell us what to do and if someone else doesn't understand that, it's not really their business.

Today when the speck was removed from my eye, I was able to see clearly again. I can't really be much help to someone if I am walking around with a speck in my eye. I can't help them remove the speck from their own eye if I've got one. It hurt and it caused very blurry vision. Imagine if I had a plank instead of just a speck!

Later this afternoon while walking the dog, I was thinking about some of the things people have said or done that have hurt me this year and how at least one of those people has come to me to ask forgiveness. Truly I have forgiven everyone even if they haven't asked. If I wanted to, I could dwell on those hurts and those things they have done. But I've done things that have caused others to hurt too. I was talking to God and saying, "I know you aren't going to show me all the bad stuff others have done because between you and me, you gotta show me what I have done so I can stop doing the bad stuff and behave myself right!" That's how it works. He shows me the speck or plank in my eye.

Just so you know, my eye is free of the speck, but there is some residual pain left. I guess it was scratched in all this. It will serve as my reminder to keep my own self clean before I go judging others and trying to remove their specks.