“The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”
Each year, I try to come up with one word or a short phrase for what I intend to work on in the upcoming year. 2024 is “The Year of Becoming Un-Planked”.
What?!! What does that even mean? So glad that you asked!
Jesus said to his disciples, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘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 your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5, New International Version)
I have spent my life trying to help others get the speck out of their eyes. My heart may have been in the right place, but my focus was not. I should have been trying to get the planks out of my own eyes. Then, I would have been much more helpful to others who really do need help. After all, even a speck in the eye is a seriously painful problem.
But first, the planks in my own eye! And how do I know what they are? My own planks are my blind spots. How can I even figure out what they are?
Psychologists might talk about projection as a means of determining my plankish blind spots. Projection is the tendency for me to identify and critique the bad qualities of others which I think I see in them, but which are definitely in me. So, whenever I see (or think I see) a speck in someone else’s eye, I need to hit the plank alarm and consider myself.
Another way to identify planks is to ask other people. I don’t always have the courage to do that, but when I do, the rewards can be astonishing. I need to ask my wife and good friends about my planks. Then, I need to shut up and listen.
And then, there is God. Prayer is not just asking God for what I want. It is also asking God about the planks in my eyes.
Sounds like a pretty dreary 2024 doesn’t it? But then again, perhaps the really dreary thing is to have planks in the eyes and not know it. If a speck in the eye is seriously painful, how much more a plank!
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