Women of Warren Vlog – Spec Spotting

good morning as believers we are told to fix our eyes on the author and perfecter of our faith that idea that step by step day by day through my life i am supposed to have a continuous continuous vertical gaze. And it's hard. It is such a struggle because a lot happens around us on a horizontal level. Some of it even jaw dropping. There is ample, there are ample centers to gall cat around us, aren't there, if we're honest. But we see twice in the gospels where Jesus addresses this tendency and this struggle that we have to keep our eyes oriented up and not out. And it reminds me so much of conversations I'll have with my kids when I might be disciplining them or talking through them with something and their response is, well, but she, or but he, and I often say to them, you are only responsible for you. And I think that's the heart of what Jesus echoes in these two passages. John 21 is after Jesus has raised from the dead and his final few times of teaching and instructing his disciples. And he's just given Peter, he's reinstated Peter after Peter denied him, of course, before the cross. But he reinstates Peter and then he gives Peter some pretty significant responsibilities and even kind of hard assignments. And Peter responds in John 21 verses 20 through 22 by saying, Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, Lord, who is going to betray you? When Peter saw him, he asked, Lord, what about him? Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me. Peter had been given a hard assignment, and instead of just keeping that vertical gaze, He was like, well, wait a minute. What about the other disciples? Are they going to have to do hard things? What's their assignment from you going to be? And that tendency that we all have to wonder, hmm, what has she been asked to do by God? When really, hmm, like Jesus said to Peter, what's it to you? We can so easily get caught in the comparison trap with those around us, with our other sisters in Christ looking at what her kingdom assignment might be. But when I use my energy to look horizontally, to look and really evaluate others out of my own understanding and my limited perspective, that divides my energy. I can no longer put all of my energy into doing what God has asked me to do. I can no longer orient all of my effort and energy into pursuing my kingdom assignment from the Lord because I'm evaluating what others are doing. We know that we shouldn't covet material possessions, But maybe also we shouldn't covet the kingdom assignments that others have from the Lord. We know that we're all part of the body of Christ, but if we're the hand, let's just focus on being the hand versus looking at another sister who's the I and wanting her job instead or wondering if her job is really as hard as our job. There's another passage where Jesus kind of addresses this tendency that we have to focus too much on others and what they are doing or not doing around us. And that is found in Matthew 7. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount. So Jesus has been teaching and teaching. And in Matthew 7, verses 3 through 4, he says, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye, when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? It is so easy to see the faults, weaknesses, and sins of other people and to miss what's in our own heart. But that shift, that shift of our gaze from vertical to horizontal, it comes at a big cost. It comes at the cost of our effectiveness for the kingdom of God. That divided energy to where we're not purely focusing and fixing our eyes on what we've been called to do and on living the way that we've been called to live. I mentioned my kids have the tendency to quickly say, well, but he or but she, when we're talking through something or they're being disciplined, and I just often think we are just professional spec spotters, aren't we? It's like our favorite hobby sometimes, and it is a consuming hobby because there are ample centers around us to look at and to evaluate and fix our eyes on their specks all the while missing a plank in our own eye. So when we find ourselves tending towards speck spotting, let's just take that as a cue to hit our knees and ask the Lord to show us where the plank is in our own eye. This is especially hard in our families because we get a front row seat to all of their weaknesses and all of their sins, don't we? but they do for us as well. So that grace upon grace and just the opportunity to come continually back to the Lord and say, oh Lord, free me from speck spotting. Don't let me get caught in that, that mentality of, well, wait a minute. What about her? No, no. Let's fix our eyes, that continuous vertical gaze. So that's this week, let's not get caught speck spotting. And let's not allow our gaze to drift horizontally so that we can really orient all of our energy into what's before us, into our kingdom assignment, instead of using our energy to try and evaluate what others are doing. The Lord, after all, has nothing but broken people to work with, right? And that definitely includes us too. I hope you have a really great week.

Originally published at warren.church.