Los Angeles, CA - June 14: Home plate umpire Nate Tomlinson is hit in the face by a broken bat from Mike Trout #27 of the Los Angeles Angels as catcher Will Smith #16 of the Los Angeles Dodgers looks on in the ninth inning of a MLB baseball game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)
Editors note: Umpire Nate Tomlinson's eye was not injured but did receive a couple of nasty cuts around is left eye.
I wanted to take a moment to take you through my thought process as I saw this picture for the first time. The first thing that went through my mind was the passage in Matthew 7:3 about the log that can be in our own eye and we are not even aware of it.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Matthew 7:3
Take a look at the umpire's face again. In this closeup, his face does not register that he has anything in his eye. He is not yet aware that there is anything wrong with what he is seeing.
All too often we can be so focused on an error, or perceived error, that we are blind to a fault that we have even when it is right in front of our face. We are not aware that we have drifted from being a loving brother or sister and slowly started becoming a hypocrite. We are all in danger of becoming that Christian everyone starts avoiding.
Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:4-5
The main reason for godly correction and rebuke is for the goal of restoring of a brother or sister back into the kingdom of God. If it is to be righteous before God, all of us need to open to the input of others. Let us not make the "Log In The Eye Synonym" a comfortable place to be. One of the best ways to accomplish that is to make Psalms 139:23-24 part of our daily prayer.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Psalm 139:23-24