“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?” Luke 6:21
As we ended our walk around the block, Katie stopped under the house and intensely gazed upward at the rotted fascia. It must have been the intensity of her stare that got my attention, because I followed her eyes up to the corner of the house, finally seeing what she was looking at! There, sticking out like a sore thumb, was the fascia I started to fix LONG ago.
OK. I don’t know how long it’s been, but it has been quite a while. I had started the repair, when I saw that it was going to take more effort, time and material than I had anticipated. Then something else caught my attention. My lovely wife never spoke about it, and I simply removed the offensive sight so far from my memory that it never came back to my mind!
The older I get, the more I suffer from ‘selective seeing!’ This morning I saw, and walked passed, a dying palmetto bug on the floor 6 times before I finally remembered I was going to pick it up the first time! Yesterday, after I set up the ladder to fix the fascia, I remembered that I’d left my saw at my son’s place. Sadly, I felt relieved that I COULDN’T fix it! WEIRD!
I’m beginning to see that one of the greatest enemies of redemption and sanctification is simply ‘wanna!’ I have worked 10 times harder doing things for other family members and Jesus than what it would take to fix that fascia. Even now, embarrassed that I am even sharing it, is not enough for me to care. I simply do not WANNA fix it! OK… I realize now… I’m a pig!
The mystery of my NOT being able to see and make adjustments to OBVIOUS repairs to my house, gets magnified when I look at my own heart. Even Jesus is baffled because He ended His story with the ‘WHY’ question (see today’s verse)! Fishing for an answer gets me no bites because honestly (dare I say it?) I simply don’t care! I now recognize I have a serious problem!
It’s just me and Jesus alone in the room now. And I can see him tapping his fingers on his crossed arms. Which forces me to see the nail scars on the back of his hands. UGH!!! I HATE it when He does that! (just being honest). But HE asked the question… and He expects an answer! Knowing Him as I do, He’ll wait as long as it takes for an answer. So I’m thinking!
And what about YOU? Are YOU facing a confused Savior awaiting YOUR response to WHY YOU’RE not DOING what is OBVIOUS to everyone else? Uh-huh! Tick-Tock baby! Have a nice day!
