If you took a good look at me last week, you know there was something strange about my appearance. After all these years of teasing people I got what I deserved. Often times people would want to complain about something I have done, either here at church or at work. They would come up to me and in a condescending voice say "Do you know what you need?" to which I would reply "A sharp stick in the eye? A big bag of hundreds?" because even though I know they are unhappy with me I try to make the situation a little less serious in the hopes they might lighten up. Well, I didn't get the big bag of hundreds but I did get a sharp stick in the eye!

I was sealing my porch with a paint sprayer and looking right while walking left. I bumped into a lilac tree and ouch! Of course I couldn't get jabbed on the side of the head. Or on the side of my big stomach. Or on the side of my leg. Nooooo, I had to get the stick right in the eye. My mother probably sensed it out in Colorado and had a sudden urge to run outside and yell "I told you so!" (Mothers can be like that)

It hasn't proved fatal to me or my eye, and although it is ugly to look at it seems to be healing up just fine. But it got me thinking. That passage about a mote and a beam suddenly has a more personal ring to it. I tell you what, when that stick went in my eye I didn't think about anything else except getting it out. I didn't say to myself "Bummer, now I probably won't be spraying on the sealant evenly!" and I didn't worry if I had missed a spot or not.

I didn't wonder if the Red Sox were going to win that night, nor did I contemplate the meaning of life. There could have been spiders crawling all over me. My hair could have been on fire. It didn't matter one whit. My focus suddenly and absolutely went to my eye and it's wooden visitor.

I tell you something else I didn't think about. I didn't wonder if any of you had any sin in your lives I needed to "pick" at. I know when we read the illustration Jesus gives we see the absurdity of it, that how can you get a mote out of someone else's eye when your eye is clogged up with a beam? You can't see a thing! But there's much more to his story than just not being able to see. Let me tell you, you could care less about anyone else's eye!

And that really should be the nature of sin. When you realize you have it, when you realize how ugly and painful it is, your focus should immediately go to getting it OUT of you. Only if you don't realize it do you care to pick and nit at someone else. That proves you must be very insensitive, because while physical pain is a natural indicator that something is amiss (Hello! Stupid! THERE'S A STICK IN YOUR EYE!!!) spiritual pain should also be a natural indicator that something is horribly wrong (Hello! Stupid! THERE'S SIN IN YOUR LIFE!!!)

Funny thing. Leave that stick in there long enough and you will get used to it. I know that sounds impossible, but it's true. And leave sin in your life long enough, you can get used to it, too. But both remain just as nasty!

I think next time I would like to try getting a big bag of hundreds instead!!!

Randy