“Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log 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 neighbor’s eye.” (Matthew 7:4-5)
You probably know where this is going.
I was having a perfectly fine morning last Saturday. I walked over to the grocery store on a holy mission: to buy bread and juice for communion. I was feeling good, enjoying the beautiful day, and then got in line to make my purchase. I got into a “15 Items or Less” line (I won’t get into the debate about whether it should be “less” or “fewer” today) when it happened.
Judgment.
I was behind these two women and I noticed that their baskets looked a little full. You would think that because I was having a good morning and claim to be a person who is all about grace that I wouldn’t dare do what I did, but of course I did. I counted. I counted their little items and, sure enough, it added up to more than 15. A cloud of injustice then settled over me and I shot micro glares their way. Being upset because supermarket scofflaws have broken the “15 Items or Less” guideline may be the mother of all #FirstWorldProblems and I succumbed to it.
That cloud of injustice, thankfully, soon passed and the words of Jesus took its place. I sometimes hate when that happens. It wasn’t a Bible passage that came to mind, per se, but something like, “So, friend, how’s that log of yours?” And my response was, “I can’t hear you, Jesus. I’m too busy judging right now.”
Judgment is so easy and, if we’re honest, a little fun. It gives us that brief feeling of superiority and it happens not just at the grocery store. We judge the Tea Party. We judge those on welfare. We judge parents. We judge children. Judgment in of itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing. What would our world be like without justice? But judgment used as a way to inflate ourselves, well, that’s another story.
The logs in our own eyes may not even be “bad” things. Instead, it may be something like not allowing God to love you or forgive you. For me, I try to whittle it down a little bit each day. Maybe, just maybe, it will get to the point where it can fit in a little shopping basket.