Log in my eye

There are many great teachings from Jesus in the New Testament. The series that includes Matt 7 is an outline of Jesus' teachings in a pastoral way. There are many great things in this series, though most of them are overshadowed by the sermon on the mount, which comes a bit before chapter 7. The whole series is a very though pill to swallow. The bar set up by Jesus for Christian living is so high that it feels impossible to follow it all. Of course that is the point as we cannot do it all on our own. This past week I learned a very important lesson that can be summed up by the following verse found in these pastoral teachings; "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?" Mat. 7:3 I often want to believe myself to be someone called to ministry who is very self aware, always willing and open to give a fair hearing to different points of view. A couple of days ago I had a very good conversation that forced me to face how wrong I have been in my self assesment.
Here is the best way I can explain this revelation that came to me through someone I hope to become good friends with;
One of my favorite forms of entertainment is to watch as people try to show the person they think they are through external means without actually changing at all inside. The type of person I'm refering to is the guy who drives a jeep with oversized tires, the metal gas canister in the back, a big outdoor type of dog, a husky perhaps, he is an outdorsman! He is someone who may just as likely be rafting class V rapids as spelunking somewhere in the yucatan, in his mind. In reality he works in an office and rarely ventures beyond the wilderness of the suburbs. So, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary this person is indeed an outdorsman ready and able to spend a week hiking with no problem. Those who know enough of this guy sometimes wonder how he could not see that to be able to manouver through Fairmount park in Philly, or Central Park in NY without getting lost does not make him a true nature man.
Now I'd like to point out two interesting things about this little snippet of how I entertain myself sometimes. The first is how quick I often am at judging others I see when I am out and about. For all I know the guy driving that jeep is indeed a white water rafting instructor or an ice climbing expert, etc. I have offered here an exagerated example of the type of constant prejudgement I make of people, but I trust you will be able to translate it to more mundane everyday sort of judgement we all make. The second is how creative my assessment of this person is. I point this out because another thing I realized from the conversation I mentioned at the beginning is how great I am at creating justifications for my assumptions.
All of this to say that, this past weekend I realized how proud I was at being able to see the specks in the eyes of some of my fellow Christians while at the same time completely unable to see the big log in my eye that was narrowing how much of the world I could actually see.
I was humbled this weekend and it made me very angry at first, yet the more I explore that experience the more liberating it becomes.