A Returned Favor

A Returned Favor

How can you think of saying, “Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,” when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Luke 6:42

Ouch! Does that Scripture verse stomp on your toes the way it does mine? Somehow I can always see in others—magnified and much worse, of course—the same problems that plague me personally. For instance, I tend to notice people who look as if they need to be on a diet. (I’ve been on the Weight Watchers program.) I fuss at drivers who do not seem to know where they are headed. (I am directionally dysfunctional and get lost a lot.)

I think about those things, and then I remember the words of the apostle Paul, who humbly identified himself as the worst of sinners (see 1 Timothy 1:15-16). I think I could run him a pretty good race.

I’m reminded of Ignacy Paderewski, the great Polish pianist and composer, who was visiting Boston some years ago. As he walked down the street during his free time before the concert, he was approached by a shoe-shine boy, who called, “Shine, mister?”

The great pianist looked down at the young man whose face was streaked with grime and boot polish and said, “No, my lad, but if you will wash your face, I will give you a quarter.”

“All right!” exclaimed the boy, looking sharply at him. He ran to a nearby fountain, where he washed his dirty face until it shone. When he returned, Paderewski held out the quarter.

The boy took the quarter and then returned it, saying gravely, “Here, mister. You keep it and get your hair cut.”

Dear God, forgive me for being critical of others when what I really need to do is look deep inside and work on my own faults and sins. Help me daily to work on getting the log out of my own eye. Amen.