That’s right!  I said it, and for God’s sake SOMEONE had to tell you!  You still don’t get it, do you?  Your theology is warped, your view of worship is flawed, you are too worldly, you never share the gospel, you don’t give enough and you certainly don’t serve enough.  I could go on and on and on with your failures to live up to the standards of Christ as I see them.  What is wrong with Christianity you ask?  It is you, you are the problem.

I feel a LOT better now, thanks for letting me get that off my chest!

I want to say that on one hand, I am not being serious.  But on the other hand, there is some truth to what I am saying.  Let me explain…

For some unknown reason, we like to point fingers at other people.  We even coined a term for this, called “Fruit Inspectors” and boy do we love to inspect other people’s lives.  Criticizing others comes easy for us, it certainly does for me.  From what I have seen in my life, it seems that most of us are very good at recognizing the flaws in other people. 

I can understand the appeal.  It is far easier to be critical of another person than it is to scrutinize our own lives and see the dirt, grime and yuck that is present.  Trying to change others is much more fun and requires a LOT less effort than working on changing ourselves.  Discovering the flaws in other people is easy and it is something we all seem to enjoy doing.  So we point our fingers at others, and it temporarily satisfies a God given need for self-examination.  When I am pointing out your flaws, I don’t have to see my own.

If I understand the Christian journey correctly, God calls each one of us to the same calling:  to become like Christ.  We are not individually called to change the world nor are we called to change others.  Certainly, those things happen as a by-product of this call.  Our Eastern Orthodox friends call it “Theosis” and it is the journey to become more like God.  This journey is God’s gift to every one of us.  It is our birthright, and the one thing we should be focused on.  But it is so much easier to focus on another’s life rather than our own.

Jesus taught us not to worry about the tiny little things that are wrong with other people.  We can’t change others, can we?  Rather we are to focus on the serious flaws in our own lives and work on them.  Truly, that is the work of the Christian.

Christian, don’t worry about how a non-Christian is living their life.  For that matter, don’t focus your gaze on fellow Christ followers.  God hasn’t called us to that.  The spiritual gift of Fruit Inspection is nowhere to be found in the original text of the New Testament.  God has invited you and I into a beautiful journey of becoming more like Him.  Let us spend time on that, instead of pointing fingers at others.

What is the one thing in your life that needs your critical gaze today?