Monday
Moment
August 20, 2007
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? (Matthew
7:4)
A staff member in a dermatologist�s office was taking my medical history
in preparation for a first-time appointment.
She asked if I had any family history of skin cancer. I could think of none and said no. Later my wife wondered how the appointment
had gone, and I told her about the interview, asking if she could remember any
family members who had had skin cancer.
�No one except you,� she said.
Oh, yes, that time in California two decades ago . . . . In my casual
survey of family health problems, I had conveniently overlooked the one the
doctor would be most interested in�my own.
We are �eagle-eyed to see another�s faults,� John Dryden observed. The speck in the eye of a friend can look as
big as a blimp, yet the telephone pole stuck in our own eye seems nothing more
than a minor incident, a little character flaw, a quirk of personality. It is easier to be wise for others than for
ourselves. Our judgments are so
effortless, so apparently moral, requiring no talent, no self-discernment, no
character.
But what pains us in others may inform us about what lies also within our
own souls. Saadi, a 12th
century Persian poet, tells this story in his autobiography, The Rose Garden:
I remember that in the time of
childhood I was very religious; I rose
in the
night, was punctual in the performance of my devotions, and abstinent.
One
night I had been sitting in the presence of my father, not having
closed
my eyes
during the whole time, and with the holy Scriptures in my
embrace,
while numbers around us were asleep. I said to my father, �Not one of
these
lifts up his head to perform his prayers, but they are
all so fast asleep you
would say they are dead.� He replied: �It were better if you also were
asleep
than to be searching out the faults of mankind. (The person) endowed with
an
eye capable of discerning God does not discern any person
weaker than himself.�
In every person who comes near�and in yourself�look for what is good and
strong. Honor that. Rejoice in that. Imitate that. As you do, the specks that disturb the heart
and the planks that trouble the soul will fall away like dead leaves before an
autumn wind.
. . .
. . .
. . .
. . .
You Are
Rich, a collection of sixty Monday Moments, is available as a book.
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Monday
Moments are written by Dr.
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