The Trouble with X....
6/04/2009 | Author: RCW
Yes, it's been a while since I wrote. Let's not make it an issue. Such is life. On a personal note, I have been refreshed to be leading a group of college students and young adults on a journey toward spiritual growth. It's been awesome and really rejuvenating to see their passion for God and how much they are enjoying it. No credit to me whatsoever except to say I have been extra busy as of late...with the class, with the rest of my responsibilities at the church I work at, marriage, my wife's recent downturn in health, etc. All that has made the writing (on this blog anyway) cease...but only temporarily.



The name of this particular entry is identical to the name of one of C.S. Lewis's essays. It is a very good quick read (maybe a couple of pages long). I will summarize it for you.

There is something innately human about our tendency to fault-find. No person is immune. For instance, we think that some people are absolutely charming until we get to know them and realize that we can find several things we'd change about them. Just ask a newly married wife...a few months into the marriage is when she realizes that there are some things about her husband that she did NOT sign on for. My wife of course is no exception. Hence, the title of Lewis's essay is "The Trouble with X..." In other words, the title is using the phrase that we so easily slip into - "The trouble with so-and-so is...fill in the blank here." It simply rattles off of our tongue readily. "I like Tom except that he always bites his nails and interrupts." Or "I enjoy her, but I dread the way she fixes her hair." These are superficial remarks, but they generally go much deeper. And to make matters worse, the closer we are to the person (let's say the person is an immediate family member), the most sharp and merciless the judgements become. Sometimes we spend so much time dwelling on the "troubles" with our family members (their faults), that we forget that there was ever any good in them at all!

Jesus of course said much on the subject, but perhaps the most important thing he said about it is this:

    "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
    Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person's eye."
    -Matthew 7:1-5


Those aren't my words, they're His. If you want to follow Christ, we have to examine our own flawed selves first and foremost before we start criticizing everyone else...especially our loved ones and family members. How sad that we often treat worst the ones we love the most.


Prayer: Lord, help me to examine my own self before I am so quick to criticize everyone around me. Help me to see my own self and my own glaring sin clearly so that I may remove it. I ask that you help me with this that I might not only understand my self better, but that I might love others as you love them. Amen.

-RCW