Hey everyone, I'm Dr. Allison. Today's scripture offers us a wiser way of being human as we step into the day.

As we move into this day, today's passage invites us to consider a pattern many of us fall into without realizing it,

especially when relationships feel tense, confusing,

or emotionally charged. It's the pattern that psychologists call projection. Today's reading

comes from Luke 6, 37 through 38, and 41 through 42. Do not judge, and you will not be judged.

Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give and it will be given to you. A good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over will be

poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your

brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother,

brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?

You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will

see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Jesus begins this teaching with language

that can feel confronting. Do not judge, you hypocrite. And I've come to appreciate how direct

Jesus is. He's not issuing a moral threat. He's describing us.

It's a very real relational dynamic, one that plays out quietly and consistently in every human

relationship. The metaphor Jesus uses here is intentionally exaggerated, a tiny speck in someone else's

eye and a massive plank in your own.

It's almost humorous, and I love the humor because Jesus is trying to help us see something

about ourselves, not to shame us, but to help us be honest with ourselves.

What Jesus is talking about here is a form of projection. Projection happens when something inside me feels

uncomfortable, unresolved, or threatening, and instead of turning toward what's in me, I locate it in someone else.

We become highly attuned to someone else's flaws, their tone, their mistakes, their blind spots,

...