Change

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” (Luke 6:39).

Christ Blessing the Children (Artus Wolfaerts)

They say that change takes twice as long and costs twice as much as a person first anticipates.

Organisational change can be so expensive and time consuming in terms of people and resources that organisations devote whole teams to managing the change process.

I have been thinking about this over the last few days because I have been thinking about how this would apply to my own life.  You see, if I were able to live my life without any change at all I would be so comfortable.  Nobody would upset me.  I would never have to feel the discomfort of growth.  I would stay within my “comfort zone” and everything that I did would be what was entirely reachable and possible.  I would never wonder if it were possible for me to fail.  I would never wonder about the implications of failure.  Instead, I would understand how to exist in a state where I could just be…

And I have been thinking about this today as I have been thinking about the Gospels.  So much of what we do in communities is look at other people and demand that they change.  So much of what we do is based around trying to get someone else to adapt how they live so that my life can be more comfortable.

And this seems to be the way that human beings are – for thousands of years.  I mean, two thousand years ago, in the Gospel, Christ warned us not to demand that others change before we examined our own behaviours…

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.” (Luke 6:39-45).The Pharisees were so good at considering the shortcoming of others.  They had turned it into a sort of art.  They could catalogue the list of offences.  And Christ really really did not like that.  And neither do I. 

Except that I realised the other day that I am a Pharisee.  I am very clearly able to see that others should change.  I could catalogue their faults as though I were God the Father Himself.  I could judge left right and centre.  And I do.  All day.  Every day.

And today, it seems to me that I have spent a lifetime judging and looking and trying to get others to change.  And that is perhaps the most disappointing thing.  For all my God asks of me is that I change myself – to become a more worthy child of His…  And I am so distracted with the spec in my brother’s eye that I do not even bother looking at the log in my own…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.