Luke Study #62 – Seeing Clearly

Luke 6:39-42 (CEV)

³⁹ Jesus also used some sayings as he spoke to the people. He said:

Can one blind person lead another blind person? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? ⁴⁰ Are students better than their teacher? But when they are fully trained, they will be like their teacher.

⁴¹ You can see the speck in your friend’s eye. But you don’t notice the log in your own eye. ⁴² How can you say, “My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,” when you don’t see the log in your own eye? You show-offs! First, get the log out of your own eye. Then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend’s eye.

Seeing Clearly

What does it take to see clearly?

When we look at another person, what makes us think that we truly understand them?

When we look at ourselves, what makes us think that we truly understand ourselves?

Each of us has so many motives and reasons for what we do and why we do it. Often we are completely unaware of the root of our motivations. I yell at my husband because his actions make my inner eight-year-old terrified, even though I know full well that I’m safe, and that’s not what he meant. I push myself to work harder – to complete more – because I have this message rattling around in my head telling me I’m not good enough, and that if I just try harder, than maybe people will like me and I’ll be okay. I don’t show up in new situations unless I’ve got someone to come with me who can help me understand what’s expected out of me socially – someone I can copy until I figure out how to do it by myself.

Five years ago, if you had asked me, I wouldn’t have understood why I do any of those things. I had no clue! I knew they were annoying. I knew they crippled me. I knew they hurt people around me. But I didn’t understand them.

And then one day God showed up and said, “we have some talking to do.” It wasn’t an overnight process. It’s taken years for me to have the courage to allow God to peel back layer after layer of explanations as to why I do what I do, but I am convinced that there is always a reason for the way we respond and behave with each other and with ourselves – even if we don’t yet know what that reason is.

Getting real with God about who we are is, I think, what Jesus is talking about when he’s talking about getting the logs out of our eyes. We each have these things that have shaped who we are and how we function on a day to day basis, but that nevertheless can make it harder for us to have a good perspective on what’s going on around us. But good, healthy community – that Kingdom-breaking-in change-maker that it is – requires relationship, and relationship requires us being able to have good perspective. And this is the point. If we come to understand ourselves well, we can bring much better perspective to our relationships with those around us.

I think the point of the parable is that we’ve probably all got some logs in our eyes.

But the point of Jesus, is that they don’t have to stay there.Journal Questions:

1. Can you think of a time when you tried to help another person with a problem that they were having, only everything you tried to do just seemed to make the situation worse?
2. Can you think of an issue that you seem to keep coming back to over and over again, but the only explanation you can think of is that somebody else is 100% at fault, because nothing else makes sense?
3. Is it possible that there is a log at work in these situations?
4. If it is, the first step to all of this is to acknowledge that there is a log. You don’t have to start by knowing what kind it is, how big it is, how far it sticks out, or anything else. Just take in the fact that it’s there.
5. The second step is to start to bring your log to Jesus. When you’re spending time with God, bring it up and let God know that you think there might be a log there, and let God know you’d like his help dealing with it.
6. Then, listen. How God will help you will be unique to you and to your situation. He might simply remove it. He might suggest that you talk to someone about it. He might slowly over the course of weeks or months make clear the source of it. But in my experience, at least, this is a prayer that God seems very happy to answer!