Don’t Laugh – You Do the Same Thing!

Matthew 7:3-5 (KJV) says:

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

This is a powerful question.

We are continually aware of what is ‘wrong’ with our friends, family members, work colleagues, relatives, children and the world outside including our politicians and religious leaders.

But we are blissfully unaware that we have the same faults and shortcomings that we see and object to in others.

Skeptical? I will prove it to you right now!

Walter was an investment banker who worked crazy hours. He was brilliant and talented and certainly in the top 1% of the 1%. He was also the CEO of a tech company he founded and was actively involved in running it.

He did not exercise – ‘no time’ was his refrain – and had a steady diet of fries and pizza and colas.

The inevitable happened and he had to be rushed to the hospital after a stroke.

His brother, a physician, read him the riot act. If he didn’t clean up his act, his brother told him, he would not be around in two years. He gave Walter a regimen of exercises and a list of approved foods.

Walter called him the following week and told him that he was religiously adhering to every one of his brother’s suggestions.

Two months passed and Walter’s health did not improve. He wheezed. He had difficulty climbing stairs. His blood pressure remained high.

His suspicious brother accosted him. “I am following your directions to a T,” Walter protested.

His brother came by the next morning and caught Walter wolfing a bagel slathered in butter and a half dozen glazed donuts. He was swigging directly from a two-liter Coke bottle.

“What the hell,” his brother expostulated.

“I am doing exactly what you asked me to,” protested Walter. “I had no time, so I outsourced it to some really good guys.”

“Look,” said Walter and touched an icon on his iPad. It showed a lean, muscular middle-aged man working out in a gym. “That is my strength hire. He just bench pressed 300 pounds.”

“And here is my healthy eating hire,” continued Walter and he pressed another icon. The screen showed a lithe female clad in leotards bustling about in a well-equipped kitchen.

“She just had oatmeal with flax seed for breakfast and is making a salad for lunch.”

“So you see,” said Walter triumphantly, “I am doing exactly what you asked me to do!”

Did you smile as you read this?

Well, you should wipe that smile off. You do the exact same thing.

You live in a haze of anxiety and there is an undercurrent of tension in your life that is always there. You long to be like the child you were who could happily watch a puppy chase its tail for an hour.

So what do you do?

You ‘outsource’ finding that place of peace and calm and serenity to your mind.

And your mind, dazed and befuddled and utterly incompetent, comes up with the best suggestions it can.

“Why don’t you watch that new thriller on Netflix?”

“Go bowling and then have dinner with Joe. You haven’t seen him in months.”

“You really should be CEO. Why don’t you come up with a plan to push out your boss and take his place. This is the time to do it before the re-organization is complete.”

“You really need a bigger place. Why don’t you call your bank and ask if you can get a larger mortgage?”

“Why don’t you check out that new dating service. It guarantees you will find your ‘true love’”.

You cannot outsource finding peace and calm to your mind.

In fact, your mind is the problem.

So what should you do? What can you do?

I will tell you next week.

Peace!