Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Remember the Monkey


I have noticed an annoying and hypocritical tendency of mine. I have had a number of bad habits through the years (thanks for asking, but I hardly think this is any of your business), which I have worked hard on extricating from my life. Of course this is the good news. The annoying and hypocritical aspect of today's discussion is that I find myself rashly judging others who are still slaves to these exact same habits. I look down on these folks with a totally haughty (now there's a good word) attitude, as if I am so much better than them. How disgusting they are, how petty, how common, how lower class.

I often pray that the Lord will reveal areas in my life that I need to work on, and this is one area that rises to the top. When I catch myself in one of my mental diatribes against those people, I need to chill (an expression used by some hip youngsters I saw on T.V.). I need to realize that I was once afflicted by the same problems, I had the same monkeys on my back. I need to search my memories and remember how the habits arose in my own life and controlled me and give some space and some understanding.