Hypocrisy is a brash word. Most of us hold it at arm's length, confident that we never stoop to such baseness. People who divide their words from their behavior like those seedy politicians that make such satisfying dartboards are hypocrites. Not us.
And yet.
Last night Ben was
barreling through the house at full volume.
"Stop yelling!!!!" I yelled.
I have heard myself trip on my own words more than once.
"She is so critical. Can't she look for the good?" Blush.
Actually seeing an obnoxious tendency in someone else is perhaps the shortest path to unearthing it in myself. It can be nearly impossible to comprehend the pain caused by negating another
person's opinion until we experience it.
One time I was feeling ornery about a comment a friend made about people who are different than her. She wanted nothing to do with them. How insular.
Then as chance would have it I was reading in the news about a problem on the other side of the world. I closed the window abruptly and began to look for something more interesting.
Then I remembered. I was being as
dismissive as my friend had been, only there were no witnesses to convict me. Except my own conscience. I doubt I would have made the self observation had I not previously felt indignation about my friend.
In the end it is not about correcting everyone around me. It is only about cleaning up my own backyard.
Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me remove the speck from your eye"; and look, a log is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Matthew 7
