An unfortunate side effect of the familiarity of certain scriptures, even in secular culture, is that potentially life-changing proverbs and lessons get breezed by because of their commonality. There are certain little maxims we’ve heard so many times that we relegate them to cute little cliches instead of what they really are: words to live by. Even if we don’t completely cast them aside, we at least compartmentalize them. There may be a broader application, but we’re so used to hearing the words in relation to specific actions or ideas that we have a hard time connecting the dots to other areas of our lives.
This week, two such scriptural maxims came to my mind: don’t judge (James 5:9), and don’t point out the speck in your brother’s eye when you have a log in your own (Matthew 7:3). Maybe a more common version of the second is “the pot calling the kettle black.”
This past week, a very prominent and well known pastor in Houston went under an incredible amount of scrutiny for a decision he made. I’m not going to talk about the decision he made, whether it was right or wrong, or what I think about it. What I do want to talk about, however, is how the scrutiny quickly degenerated from an issue related to a specific action or decision to a broad attack on the man’s character and life based on something pretty unrelated to the issue at hand. It turned from a conversation (or, more accurately, an onslaught of half-informed critics) about the right course of action with Houston residents and the current flooding to a conversation about money, and why this man is terrible for having it.
Here’s what’s incredible to me: if you live in America, you are among the wealthiest people in the world. Even the poor in America are, by global standards, middle class. Most people in America would be considered high income on the global scale. So, when we all take to the streets (or more accurately, the internet) to crucify somebody for what we consider a heinous crime against humanity because of their wealth, maybe we should take a step back and look at our relative wealth.
The truth is, I spend a lot of money on things that don’t matter. Do I give to non-profit organizations? Yes. Do I financially support organizations that are impacting the impoverished of the world? Yes. But do I spend even a relatively close amount of my income on that when compared to what I spend on my own comfort – house, vehicles, video games, fast food? Not even close.
Do you?
So the question is: why, then, is it okay to jump on the bandwagon against somebody else (who is doing the same thing as we are) just because they may be doing it to a larger scale? (Side note: we don’t know that the man is doing the same thing. For all I know, he gives a larger percentage of his income than I do to better causes than I do. But, that’s part of the problem — we don’t know, and we don’t care.)
His house seems excessive to some. I have a room in my house dedicated solely to the toys of my children. I bet that seems pretty excessive to people living on skid row. His clothes seem excessive to some. My wife has been asking me for three months to get rid of some of my shirts because I don’t wear them at all, and they’re just taking up space in my dresser and closet. His income is too high for some. Compared to other authors (which is where his income comes from — his books), he isn’t even close. Why don’t we care what those people are making? Or sports figures? Or movie celebrities? But, let’s point it back to me. There are people in the world who live off less than $2 a day. The empty Starbucks cup sitting next to me as I write this cost more than that. Then add in the gas to drive here, the laptop in front of me, the books beside the laptop, the earbuds in my ears… Are we getting the point yet?
I understand that we should be concerned with the wellbeing of humanity. I understand that, as Christians, we should be concerned with how our brothers and sisters of faith are living up to the standard God has given us in the Bible. I understand that we can speak our grievances and try to hold our fellow man accountable for his actions. This is not a broad justification of inordinate wealth.
What I am doing is trying to make us refocus. Instead of spending my time wondering or complaining about what another man does with his resources, why don’t I reevaluate what I’m doing with my own? Instead of playing a guessing game about somebody else when I don’t even have the facts and figures, why don’t I make a game plan for how to be faithful with my own personal assets? Instead of pointing out specks in other people’s eyes, why don’t I try tossing some of my own logs in to the wood chipper? God knows there are plenty of logs in my own life.
Let me be very clear as I end this thought out. This isn’t about people’s reaction to one man. This isn’t about justifying or defending that man. This is about evaluating my own heart and challenging you to evaluate yours as well. If I care about what others are doing with their finances, resources, time, energy, whatever, then I better be taking careful inventory of what I’m doing with mine. When I judge others, I’m inviting judgment back on myself. I don’t know about you, but I would rather try to focus on leveling the forest growing out of my own eye so that I can stand faithful before God. I would rather put my time and energy into something I can actually change. And I hope I can treat others who are in a position that I know nothing about with the same love and grace that I want people to treat me with.
The Endeavor 