Wednesday Wisdom 03
The mental gymnastics that my brain goes through to spell Wednesday correctly remains puzzling to me, no matter how old I get. Kinda like life.
There’s no doubt I need God’s wisdom to guide me every day. But I need extra on Wednesdays. 
And the survey says…
Wow there are a lot of surveys out there these days. They’re everywhere.
Just this week I was asked to respond to four of them, and two were repeat requests.
They come every which-a-way too — email, voicemail, snail mail, text message, banner alert. I haven’t met the survey-taking carrier pigeon yet, but I won’t be surprised if he knocks.
Now I don’t look at everyone’s spreadsheets, but I’ve got to wonder if all those survey results are making us any better.
There seems to be an ongoing uptick in bad behavior across the global board. And sadly, it goes way further than someone forgetting to put the fries in the takeout bag.
I won’t itemize those global bad behavior details here. Lots of other places do that.
But on an integrity scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is the worst and 5 is the best, it’s unnerving to think of what our overall report card looks like.
And so on most days, I try not to dwell on those things that are out of my control.
I do miss the mark sometimes, but then I pray. Because there’s much to pray about. And after that, I try to focus on the things that I can improve in myself.
Here is what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:3-5 (CSB):
“Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.”
It’s easy to look at anything and anybody other than ourselves and demand improvement.
It’s hard to walk these days without stumbling over something that needs repair. It’s constant. It’s distracting.
But I believe what Jesus is saying here, is that our first priority should be to work on the beam of wood issues in our own lives before being so concerned about what others are doing wrong.
And maybe the process of doing what it takes to work on our own issues will create compassion and a healthier perspective in us for others that we never thought was possible.