If you are supposed to see or hear what I write or say today and you don’t, who failed? If you are not supposed to see or hear what I write or say today and you do, then who’s guilty? I recently wrote a blog post and as often happens, someone said “I know who you wrote that for”. Sometimes they say “so and so needs to see this”. And their mission in life is to see to it that it gets before “so and so”. As a preacher I have lost count of how many times I have heard people say that at the end of a sermon. I’ve also lost count of how many times I myself have thought “you may be right but you could use it in your life more”.
As we examine our own lives and those of others, we tend to play God. We judge their actions and motives to determine if we can “help” them be a better person, a better christian, even a better example to us. Jesus taught this whole splinter in their eye, beam in your own for this very reason and I don’t know that I have done very well with it.
If we are walking toward a more Jesus shaped reality of life then we probably don’t have much time for criticizing, complaining or condemning. Yet our answer to all the woes of the church, the government, the nation or even the world is to point out how unholy others are in their areas of sin and disregard how disgusting ours are. It is a whole lot easier to knock the outward sins someone else while defending our hidden inward sins of the heart.
Jesus leads guides and directs the eyes and ears of those who are fervently continually seeking after Him. Jesus moves the circumstances of those who do not seek Him, to bring them to the place where they can see or hear something that can cause them to consider Him. He does that. Without our help. If He wants our input, He’ll ask us to pray. It is not what I write or what I say that makes the greatest difference for anyone. It is how he turns my heart to respond to what He desires for me to see and hear.