About a week ago, I saw a Facebook post as well as a video about a woman who made the decision to leave her church after she was burned by some others in the congregation. We don’t know if the story is true or just a story to bring home a point. But true or not, it could and probably has happened and the point is well worth remembering as well as the story. Here is the story.
One day a lady came and told her pastor that she would not be coming to church anymore. The reasons she gave him were as follows. “I saw a woman gossiping about another member; a man that is a hypocrite; the worship team living wrong; people looking at their phone during service; some were sleeping; among so many other things wrong in your church,” she replied.
The pastor was sad to hear her reasoning, but not surprised, as he’s heard it all before. That’s why he let her go. But not before she did one final thing for him. “But before you go, do me a favor: Take a full glass of water and walk around the church three times without spilling a single drop on the ground. Afterward, leave the church if you desire.”
An odd request to say the least, but the woman knew it would be a piece of cake. She followed his instructions, walked three times around the church with her full glass of water, and returned to him — task completed. The pastor prompted her with just one more thing before she left: “Before you leave I want to ask you one more question. When you were walking around the church, did you see anyone gossiping?” She told him, “no.” Then he asked if she’d spotted any hypocrites, or come across anyone on their phones. Again the woman replied, “no.”
Then the pastor offered up this perspective-shattering, thought-provoking analogy that would leave even some nonbelievers shouting “amen.” “You were focused on the glass, to make sure you didn’t stumble and spill any water. It’s the same with our life. When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we don’t have time to see the mistakes of others. We will reach out a helping hand to them and concentrate on our own walk with the Lord.”
Although we are allowed in scripture to bring back someone who should wander from the truth (James 5.20) and help a person remove a speck (sin) from their eye (life), we first must look to Jesus and grow in maturity and humility. (Matthew 7.5) Let us look inwardly at our walk with Jesus, before we start looking outwardly at others.
In Christ Alone
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