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Think of someone who has hurt you. You think that it was unfair, uncalled for, beyond acceptable limits, and especially unexpected from a person like him or her. Every time you think about it, it hurts, and sometimes it hurts more because the practical consequences of that person's act continue even now, long after it happened. How do you respond?

Our old nature is such that any of us can sin if we yield to temptation, and temptation can overpower us when it comes from unexpected directions and at what we would consider as inappropriate moments when we are weak from the circumstances. However godly we may have become and transformed by the grace of God in our lives, it still remains a fact that we don't fully understand every propensity we have towards sin that remains in our flesh. So, we can say that we are all blind to different aspects of our self-centred attitudes and behaviour, which come out of our life and hurt others even when we don't see how they could have hurt anyone. That is not only because we are 'blind' but also because we have this peculiar tendency to find justifications for anything we do. We are so deeply self-centred in our thinking that we are many times unable to see things from any other points of view (Je.17:9).

As a result, even when we are the ones who have done wrong, we have this tendency to see only the other people's faults and imagine that what we have done was justified under the circumstances! For example, we can do something wrong, and then focus on the fact that the other person is not forgiving!

We have now addressed two scenarios, one where someone else has hurt us, and the other where we have hurt someone else. In both cases, isn't it our response to the situation that should come under our judgment mostly? First take out the log from our own eyes before we try to take out the speck from the other's (Mt.7:3)? But it is my observation from my own life and others including otherwise godly people that this is most challenging! Unless we make a determined effort to focus on judging ourselves, we will find ourselves having all kinds of reasons to blame others and to justify ourselves.

This is a very crucial area of life to process if our goal is to become truly godly. But the common concept of godliness is about external compliance to disciplines such as church attendance, reading the Bible, praying, etc. But Mt.23:25,26 is extremely relevant to us in this connection. Next time we have a problem with someone, can we just take up an exercise to keep away for the moment from what the other person has done wrong and focus on what is going on inside us in the way of our inner response? Let us meditate deeply on "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk.23:34). This can be the thing that will set us apart from a mere profession of godliness and lead us in the true way of godliness. Let us remember that our heart can be very deceptive when it comes to this.

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