Highway Hypocrisy

I became starkly aware of my own hypocrisy today. As I drove, I noticed that a car in front of me didn't speed up enough to prevent some interloper from butting in line to make a right hand turn for which the rest of us were waiting patiently . I was pissed at the man who presumptously passed this line of cars to esteem himself and his schedule more than the rest of us and ours, and I was none too happy with the guy in front of me for not driving more assertively to prevent such a usurper. But it soon settled on me that the driver that cut in front of us all could very well have been me on another day. After all, I've done the same thing many times. In fact, I even get irritated with drivers who try to prevent me from making such an obnoxious maneuver (drivers like me). I guess on any given day I can play the cop or the criminal. Oh...the double standard!

Borrowed Books and Double Standards

I was on the phone with my brother when he told me that he lost the book I lent him. I was a tad perturbed since it was one of my favorite books, so I gave him a bit of a ribbing. As I did so, I scanned my own book shelf for any signs of borrowed books. Lo and behold there's one, and another, another, and still another. When all was said and done, I found a dozen books that didn't belong to me, a couple of which I had borrowed more than 10 years ago! I resolved at the moment to begin the process of repentance. What does repentance involve? Well, I'm convinced it's not just a matter of "being sorry". When John the Baptist told folks to repent, he gave them ideas about what that meant in their lives -- e.g. Roman soldier, stop extorting; tax collector, stop taking more money than you should, etc. But now "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" is calling out my name and my sin! "Prometheus, give back those books you borrowed." This coupled with the words of the Lord that would soon follow the camel skin prophet, "Get that plank out of your own eye, then you can see the speck in your brother's" (paraphrase). Well here I am faced with my own hypocrisy, out on a mission to return all of the borrowed books and move away from my double standard. By the way, anyone know someone who might be missing a book titled, "The Birds of Prey".