Take Off The Lens Cap

Take Off the Lens Cap

This may have happened to you at one time or another . . .

You’re using your favorite camera, happily looking through the viewfinder to take a photo, and then you hear someone shout, “Take off the lens cap!” You assumed you were focusing in on the subject, but something was blocking the camera’s true eye all along.

Sometimes we can assume we’re focusing on what matters, but we are really taking pictures with the lens cap on. How? By focusing too much on the behavior and opinions of others while ignoring a significant blind spot, or lens cap—the ownership we should take for our own behavior.

We impose unnecessary judgments on others. We blame everyone else for our problems. We don’t see the log in our own eye. Sometimes we first need to focus on what we’re blind to before we can focus on what matters.

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

—Matthew 7:5