Last night, we sang the Doug Horley song ‘Is there a plank in your eye?’, a song based on Matt 7:3-5 which reminds us that it’s not wise to criticise others for minor things if we are blind to our own faults. It’s a funny song with a sobering truth to it and whenever I sing it, I rub my nose, remembering vividly a sketch we once did based on these verses which involved a DIY plank (thankfully made of foam, not wood) which connected rather more sharply with my nose than we had intended! (For at least five minutes, I was convinced my nose had been broken by this connection!)
This morning, one of the emails I receive talked about ‘Pirate Plank-Eye’ and I was struck again by the imaginative use of metaphor. Lex, the writer, said, ‘Whenever I find something lacking in somebody else – whether that’s their spelling, or worse still, their character, it’s an opportunity to check to see if I’ve become Plank-Eye, the Pirate! Carl Jung dug into this territory too with his wonderful understanding of the Shadow. To simplify the thought: what we cannot tolerate in others is often an aspect of ourselves that we haven’t come to terms with!’
Not only do we need to give up grumbling for Lent, but we need to learn self-examination and kindness – to ourselves and to others. If we stop fault-finding, we may well find grace and good things buried under the rubble of mistakes. If we give up the sticks we use to beat ourselves and others up, we may well discover echoes of mercy and whispers of love instead of whines of discontent and mumbling moans!