Beware of pointing fingers

Around 10 or 11 years ago, Sue and I were invited along to a youth weekend which was being run by youth leaders from a group of churches in the Doncaster area.  We happily responded to the invitation, particularly because the weekend was to take place in Scarborough, which is one of my favourite destinations.

I seem to remember that it was fairly early in our time in Doncaster.  Sue and I were really at the youth weekend to offer what support we could, get to know everyone a bit better, and join in the various activities.  The youth leaders had arranged that on the two mornings we were away, there would be optional pre-breakfast devotions, and I was asked to lead the devotions on the Sunday morning.

Sue and I were up in good time on the Sunday morning, and headed to the room were the devotions were due to take place.  We were a little surprised to find ourselves the first people there, but decided that early rising on Sunday mornings was not a natural activity for young people.  We were sure that some would come along eventually.  We waited for 5 minutes, then 10, then 15.  By then it was clear that no-one was coming to join us.  I felt a bit cheesed off that I had gone to the trouble of preparing devotions only for no-one to be there, and I must confess that in my thoughts I poured scorn on the spiritual commitment and discipline of the youngsters and their leaders.

We decided to cut our losses and head to the dining room for breakfast.   We walked downstairs and into the dining room, only to discover that the dining tables hadn't even been laid for breakfast.  We struggled to understand what was going on, until at last the penny dropped.  It was the weekend when the clocks were put back an hour, and we had forgotten!  Sue certainly wasn't best pleased that she'd lost out on an extra hour in bed.  I was reminded by that incident how easy it is to jump to conclusions, to point the finger at others.

When, at the correct time, some of the young people and youth leaders did turn up for early morning devotions, I owned up to what had happened, much to the amusement of the others.  I was sorry that I had stood in judgement on them, when in fact it was me who had made the mistake.

In the gospel of Matthew, chapter 7, Jesus warns us against standing in judgement on others: 'Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged.'   He then goes on the give an amusing illustration to ram home the point:

'Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother, "Please, let me take that speck out of your eye," when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.'

The truth is that when we point a finger at someone else, we find that three fingers point back at us!  It's so easy to criticise others, to stand in judgement and point a finger.  But we must always beware of the danger in going so.  It really is not ours to judge, for ultimately God is the judge of us all.

By the way, sad to relate that I apparently didn't learn my lesson from all those years ago: I got up an hour early again yesterday!