Ramblings. . .from Bruce

Ramblings. . .
A man is flying in a hot-air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces height and spots a man below. He lowers the balloon farther and shouts, “Excuse me! Can you tell me where I am?”
The man below says: “Yes, you're in a hot-air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field.”
“You must be an engineer,” says the balloonist.
“I am,” replies the man. “How did you know?”
“Well,” says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct, but it's no use to anyone.”
The man below says, “You must be in management.”
“I am,” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well,” says the man, “you don't know where you are or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault.”

I thought this was a pretty cute anecdote.  We all need to check our bearings from time to time but be careful who your “sounding board” is because they might just tell you something that is useless or castes blame toward an innocent person.

Blind spots—we all have them. It's part of living our lives. There are simply some parts of us that we can't clearly see, and there are some aspects of ourselves that are completely invisible. We can only see them with someone else's help or by expanding our own vision. It's a powerful thing, especially when we've been taught to only see within such narrow confines. The stories of how we're supposed to be and act sexually, physically, psychologically, emotionally, intellectually, and so forth become tiny tunnels with narrow focuses. It's hard to see much of anything.

We can often see our faults more clearly in other people, yet we usually fail to apply them to ourselves. Because our reaction is so often to criticize negatively, we usually do not see that we are guilty of the same things. If we find a certain type of behavior especially irritating in others, we may have the same problem!

To illustrate this blindness to our own sins, recall David's sin, recorded for all the world to see in 2 Samuel 12:1-5, when God sent Nathan to show David his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan told of a case in which a rich man who owned many sheep had stolen a poor man's pet lamb and killed it to eat for dinner. King David was outraged that anyone would be so greedy and selfish, so he pronounced the death penalty on this man. Then Nathan quietly pointed out that David had done the exact same thing when he stole Uriah's wife and sent Uriah to his death.  David was a man who, when he recognized his sin, would deeply repent.

What angers us about others? Consider this carefully, since in the answer may be a clue to our secret sins. “For you who judge practice the same things.”

See Ya At The Gathering Place! Bruce