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“Sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never harm you”. Whoever dreamed up that one-liner didn’t have much experience around the people of our day.
I don’t know about you, but I think we too often say, to justify our own wrongful actions, “well at least I don’t do”…whatever we’ve witnessed someone else doing, hoping to somehow elevate our selves above that person on the scales of righteousness. How would someone, that perhaps has not reached your “level of righteousness” feel overhearing your words?”
It’s an easy thing to judge someone else’s actions or perhaps their choice of words, especially when they have done or are doing something that you wouldn’t dream of doing. But the truth is, if each of us compares ourselves to the only Holy One who ever lived on earth, we’ll come up short every time.
Someone might say, it is wrong to murder; I wouldn’t murder. It’s wrong to steal another’s possessions; I don’t steal. It is wrong to sleep with someone else’s spouse; I wouldn’t do that. The problem starts when we begin to feel so high and lifted up that we attempt to elevate our selves to the plane on which the Lord Jesus Himself sits.
In our righteous little minds we forget about the other day’s little outburst of anger when someone cut us off in traffic. And…what was that you said? What was that name you used to identify that person? How deep did your fiery dart penetrate into the back of that man’s head? How stupid did you decide the young lady was who passed you on the interstate at eighty mph with a cell phone in one hand, a tube of lipstick in the other hand, looking in the mirror with one eye while navigating the road with the other and keeping the car (sort of) between the lines with an elbow or a knee? Oh yes, don’t forget about that middle aged man in the pickup truck with a trailer attached to the rear bumper, hammer down, cutting in and out of traffic during morning rush hour with little or no regard to anyone else’s safety on the highway. How stupid did you label him oh righteous one?
I know you are not a thief but have you “borrowed” little things from the company which employees you never intending to return them? Have you robbed them of time when you were having a bad day, or made personal phone calls, many of which were long distance? Are you in a position on your job that gives you ability to sit at your computer surfing the web for hours on end?
I know you don’t commit adultery but do your lingering looks at the opposite sex pose a problem for you? Where do those lingering looks leave you on the scales of righteousness?
I know you don’t lie like others in your circle do but remember the time the police officer pulled you over and asked if you were aware that you were speeding and you said “no way man”…knowing full well that you were in such a hurry to reach your destination that you exceeded the speed limit cursing anyone who had the nerve to get in your way or drive the speed limit in front of you?
While I’ve never applied lipstick while driving on the highway, I have talked on the phone and used an electric razor at the same time while steering the car with my knee. I admit that over the past 50 years I’m guilty of many things that have uninstalled my position on the scales of righteousness. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m not the gentle little Pastor pictured at the top of the page when I’m driving down I-70 and I’m cut off in traffic by one of the above mentioned drivers.
I’m glad I don’t hear the comments from fellow drivers around me. Are you glad you can’t hear their comments either? If we heard all the nasty things people say about us behind our backs the toughest of us would be crushed in our spirit. Our egos would be deflated to the point we may never speak to another person again. Let’s step off of the scales of self-righteousness and realize that we are just like everyone else.
Sticks and stones break bones that will heal, but the cutting words of self-righteous people penetrate the heart and cuts life from their spirit. That is a wound that doesn’t easily heal.