Clean windows

I read a story the other day about a housewife who criticized her neighbor's laundry (hanging to dry in the yard) and said "She didn't do a very good job! look, the clothes are still dirty! someone needs to teach her how to do the wash properly." She said this to her husband every time her neighbor hung laundry out to dry, until one morning when the laundry looked exceptionally clean. To this she said, "Look at that, someone must have finally taught her how to properly do the wash!"

And to that her husband said, "Actually, dear, I got up early and cleaned the windows."

Our perception of everything truly is clouded by our perspective. For good or bad, we judge everything based on what we know. Based on our experience. This can lead to so many erroneous assumptions, hurtful things being said or done, but when we take a moment to realize the windows may be dirty, or something may be clouding our perspective, we have an opportunity to make things right.

It takes humility to stop and look at the window through which we view the world. It is easy to think that we are right and that we see things clearly. The laundry really did look dirty! But in that little story, there was a difference between the way it looked and the way it was.

Before making a judgment call we should consider looking at the situation from a different angle. Putting ourselves in the other's shoes, a commonly used phrase that means essentially the same thing.

All of us are shaped by our history. History that extends long before we took our first breath. Who our parents are shapes us -- who their parents are shaped them -- where we live, the presence or lack of faith and God in the home, finances, schools, our parent's jobs and principles. So many things shape who we are and how we view the world around us. So much so that we can't even define it sometimes. We just think that we are right, and by the way, doesn't EVERYBODY think the way I do?!?

Well, if they don't, they should because I am RIGHT!!

Right? I mean, doesn't everyone wipe the sink and counter off after washing their hands or running water?

No?

You think that's a little OCD?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........................................................

Does that make it wrong for me to do? No. Does it mean I should expect everyone else to treat a few drops of water on the counter the way I do? No!

Jesus spoke of this a little when He spoke of taking the 2x4 out of our own eye before we try to take the sliver out of our friend's eye. He was speaking of how blind we are to our own faults and how we are easy to spot them and try to correct them in others.

I'd like to make a slight adaptation -- or rather, an addition -- to what He said. Yes, we need to check our own selves before correcting someone else, but sometimes we may need to wash the windows before we make an assumption about someone else.

In other words, maybe we need to think a little more about WHY someone feels the way they do, or believes the way they do, or even acts the way they do, before we label them in our minds. Or before we try to force our beliefs on them. Or expect a certain answer from them.

God has given us a set of life circumstances completely different from anyone else's. Yes, even if we grow up with siblings, there are plenty of factors that make our experiences unique. As much as we want others to recognize that and not put us in a box, we need to remember also that we look at the world through a set of windows that are dirty and clouded with all of the things that shaped us.

We would do well to clean the windows once in a while. Better yet, get up off the couch, out of the house, and go into the other person's world for a little while to better understand them, and to walk with them.

Isn't that what Jesus did for us?