MY NEIGHBOR, MY MIRROR

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same

way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the

measure you use, it will be measured to you. 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? 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?

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.  (Matthew 7:1-5, NIV)

So many times I have both read and heard that the things about other people that annoy us the most are usually a reflection of our own flaws. When we judge them, we are actually judging ourselves. 

I stand convicted, and rightly so.

One of the things that most irritates me about a certain neighbor is how she is always jumping to conclusions and passing judgments, and how meddlesome and self-righteous she comes across. It took a comment on a blog post I was reading to create an aha moment in which I suddenly became very aware of how often I do the same. 

The post was about the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics. I myself had not watched it, and yet I had allowed myself to become just as indignant about it as all the folks who claimed it was a blasphemous take on Da Vinci's portrait of The Last Supper, and that it openly mocked Jesus Christ and the Christian faith. 

When an IFA e-mail urged me to take action and hold NBC accountable for the footage they aired of this "lewd and demonic twist of the Last Supper," by sending a message to Congress and the FCC,  and to forward the call to action to all my friends and family, I was quick to jump on board and spread the venom.

Then, I read the comment. It was written by someone who had actually watched the presentation herself, and I was mortified by the realization of how easily I had been swayed to think the worst, and how rashly I had acted despite the clear warning in Proverbs 18:13 not to make snap judgments based on what we assume about something. (In this case, according to the eye witness, the part of it being lewd was true, but it was actually a depiction of a Bacchanalian feast rather than a demonic twist on the Last Supper).  

I will never know for sure one way or the other, but it did teach me an important lesson about the need to be on my guard so I am not so easily deceived, and to make sure going forward that I stop acting on my assumptions without knowing all the facts.

I am grateful for the wake-up call the Lord used this comment to provide, and my prayer (in agreement with the person who wrote the comment) is, "Lord, help me challenge my first assumptions, especially when I don't have the full context." Amen!