Introspection

 

[Mat 7:3-5 NET] 3 “Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye, but fail to see the beam of wood in your own? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye,' while there is a beam in your own? 5 You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Jesus

When we meditate on this enlightened teaching of Christ, we realize both the importance of it and how frequently it is violated in our world. How easy for us to see the character defects of others. [And how annoying.] And how difficult for us to see our own. [And how gratifying to the ego, and detrimental to ourselves and others.] Love constrains us to be honestly introspective—something that may be impossible without an adequate understanding of Grace. Without Grace, honest introspection can lead to morbid guilt. This is true because all of us have a “beam” in our eye, which means character defects. These defects always hurt someone—that is why they are called defects, or from the Christian perspective [my perspective] sinful nature manifestations. And we ALL have a sinful nature. It is naively insensitive at best; and it is sociopathic at worst. The failure to acknowledge and take responsibility for it causes great unnecessary suffering in our world. This is why Love constrains us to see it and deal rightly with it—constrain it, confess it, and seek help from Above and from our fellow man with it. One who does not do this cannot honestly say that he is loving those who will be negatively affected by it: his family, friends and associates. The one who fails to apply this wonderful teaching becomes a drag on the forward movement---the psycho-spiritual evolution---of the human family. This is one of countless examples of how Jesus Christ [Who is so militantly avoided in a large segment of our world, and actually forbidden in tyrannical nations] can help us attain what all humans, in the core of their being, are trying to attain: peace and harmony in a world infused with sincere Love for all fellow beings. “Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.”

Mark Graham