thoughts...

via

A few weeks ago during our small group time, a comment was made that really struck me.  It was something like "do you want to invest in things, or in people?"  It is such a simple question, but so strong.  I have been thinking of that question ever since, and it has really resonated with me.

A speaker at our church on sunday was mentioning a familiar passage where it talks about "removing a log from your own eye before you remove the spec from someone else's eye."  He was saying that so many times, we see a negative area in someone we know.  It may be a very small thing, in fact, compared to that person as a whole human being, it is a tiny thing...a spec.  Yet, after awhile, that tiny spec is all we start seeing.  It becomes so big in our eye because that's all we are focusing on, kind of like when you put your thumb in front of your eye to cover the moon.  This is when the spec becomes a log in our own eye.  I have never heard this passage spoken about this way, but it made so much sense to me.

Isn't it exhausting to always focus on people's negative areas, even my own negative areas?  It is draining, it takes effort, and it becomes consuming and obsessive.  It is hard to love others when they have hurt you or continually rub you the wrong way...trust me, I have been there and have proved unloving.  But I wonder what would happen if I really tried to see that rude person who always talks about themselves, or that guy who has got such a selfish attitude.  What if that rude person has lost someone they love and they are in deep pain?  What if that guy never received a loving comment from his father and he puts up a wall to keep from getting hurt again?  And what if those people are really just being rude or selfish?  Well, they deserve to be loved just like everyone else.

It is hard to engage with others, especially in our culture.  But if you break down everything, people are just people, no matter where they come from or what they are like.  They just want to be loved and affirmed.  And people are worth it.  Relationships can be such a blessing.
Things are just things.