I could hear the back door of our house open and a farmer clomp in wearing barn boots, the entrance was followed by a large sigh. I knew this to be my husband Dan and something was frustrating him and causing him to lose precious minutes of work. I called out, “What’s wrong?” Thinking perhaps the sky was falling. (It does some days, you know, according to Farmer Dan and his sighs.)
The response: a frustrated exclamation, “I have a sliver and it’s deep.” That means we expediently go about gathering all the necessary articles, get in good light and begin our work. We differ by familial history on how to remove slivers – Weils get the sewing needle out and start digging around in the flesh with jabs and pokes. Yikes! Crumm’s, my maiden name, use tweezers to get the job done as delicately as possible. After almost 40 years, we have agreed that both instruments have their benefit. ( But no jabbing or poking allowed.)
The sliver was deep, so I started with the needle carefully sliding it just below the top layer of skin and peeling it away to get to the next layer and so on peeling back layer after layer. Eventually we arrived at the sliver embedded in Dan’s thumb. This is where I employ the tweezer to remove the offending intruder that was stopping Dan from work that needed to be done. Success! A moment of acknowledgment that that sliver had to come out, some time of careful, sometimes a bit ouchy work and finally the sliver was gone. Dan was ready for service again.
See the picture above of Dan’s thumb and the retrieved sliver lying across the tip of his thumb next to where it had been lodged. Yes, he has farmer’s hands rough and sturdy but if you look carefully, you might be able to see those layers that had to be pulled back to reveal that rascally offense to his body.
This was a very visceral reminder of Pastor Joel speaking on the following passage a few weeks ago.
Luke 6:41
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Why do we do this?! I know I have been guilty of it. I’m pretty sure you have too. We can’t serve our God properly if that plank in our own eye is not removed. I can’t even talk about removing something from my eye – it’s too gruesome for me, but I can think of removing that sliver from Dan’s thumb. That sliver caused Dan to quit his work and immediately come home to seek help in removing it. Afterwards he was ready to get back to work free and clear of the thing that was hampering him.
Ripping the plank from our eye is not the answer, just as we did not rip Dan’s thumb open. Gather your tools first: prayer, faith, gentleness of heart, courage, steadfastness, your strong belief that God can make us whole, and your need to be able to serve that same God with as few impediments as possible. Start gently with God, the Attending Pysician present, peel back the layers that uncover just how to remove the plank properly, without hurting or damaging ourselves more in the process. God doesn’t want that but he does want us to get to the source and heal it so that we can get back to the work of praising our Savior, helping others, serving as our gifts call us, and being kind to everyone even if we see a speck in someone else’s eye.
I think the layers are important and require patience with ourselves in this process and patience with God; for while we remove the plank in one eye there may be another in the other eye rendering us blind to the truth that he is always with us. Here’s another way to think of it – when it’s cold outside or we’re getting ready to hike, sometimes we use the phrase, ‘layer up’.
Layer up means get ready by dressing with many layers so you can then peel them off as the journey demands. Begin today! Peel back the layers ever so lovingly to reveal what lies in your eye or perhaps your heart – sometimes what we have to confront is not pleasant to us and is very hard to move forward on – but lean into the hard edges for that is where we grow. If what you see is not of God – remove it. ((Not as simply done as said.) DO THE WORK! Then, similar to Farmer Dan you will be ready to continue your journey with a fresh heart and a new awareness of who you can become.
~Shauna Weil
A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of Goodrich UMC
A devotion provided by the Devotion Ministry of Goodrich UMC