Daily Lesson for May 23, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 7

Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but udo not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

When I was in high school football was everything. Friday Night Lights and all that.  And I was captain of the team and garnered a lot of accolades.

In the parking lot after a practice our senior year my best friend told me he was sick of football because he never got to play. He said he was really ready for the season to be done and he said he didn't care if we made the playoffs.  I heard that and laid into him with the full force of my anger.  It was because of him and others on the team like him that we were losing, I said.  I was so disgusted; and came within inches of punching him square in the face.

You know why I was so angry?  Because truth be told, I actually hated football.  I couldn't stand it's pressures and anxieties and the fear I went through every Friday night.  Secretly, I had wanted it all to be over since the very first day of high school.  But that was my secret; and I had to do whatever it took to hide it.  What I was fighting in my friend, I was actually fighting inside of me.  And I needed to put up a good fight.

We often see the specks in other people's eyes out of proportion because they are distorted by the logs in our own eyes.  The "sin" we are so quick to project on others is often actually much greater in us.  We fight them because it's a lot easier than fighting ourselves - or better, making peace with ourselves.