Matthew 18:8-34

If your hand or your foot hinders you, cut it off, and throw it away.  It would be better for, you to enter the life maimed or lame, than to have both hands, or both feet, and be thrown into the fire that never goes out.  If your eye hinders you, take it out and throw it away. It would be better for you to enter the life with only one eye, than to have both eyes and be thrown into the fires of Gehenna.  Beware of despising one of these little ones, for in heaven, I tell you, their angels always see the face of my father who is in heaven.   Matthew 18:8-14

As I read this, I couldn’t help but ask, “What hinders us?”  At first I thought of arrogance, fear, greed, laziness, self-centeredness, and the like.

Then I thought about the metaphor Jesus used – how do our hands hinder us? Are we gripping too tightly to something?  Is there something we need to let go of? How are we using our hands? Are we using them to lift others up or are we using them tear others down?  Are we using them to help those in need or to welcome the stranger, or are we using them to hold them down?

What about our feet?  How are they hindering us? Are they taking us down the wrong road, leading us in the wrong direction? Or are we using them to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves? Are we using them to stand up to bullies?  To stand between those who wish to do harm and those they want to harm? 

What about our eyes?  Do they hinder us by focusing on the wrong things?  By looking away when we need bear witness to what is happening? By closing  off our sight so we don’t have to see the cruelty, the injustices, the hatefulness?  Or do we look all this directly in the eye and see it for what it is and then use our feet to  stand up against it and open our hands to lift one another up and to share what we have? 

Take some time to really think about this.  Ask yourself, what is hindering me?  Pause for a minute and really put some thought into it. 

May we see what is hindering us and remove it from us by loving in all things, by helping each other, by welcoming one another, and by witnessing the truth. May we show mercy, may we forgive,  and may we let loose heaven here on earth. Reaching out and standing up in love.

Until next time…♥️