The Little Black Dot

I recently read a story about a speaker who was attempting to get a classroom of people to ponder the importance of particular subject. The speaker had a large white piece of paper on a board, in the middle of the white paper the speaker placed a tiny black dot. He asked various people in the audience, to tell him what they saw. Every person he asked said the same thing, they saw the black dot. The teacher admonished the crowd to consider that they had focused on one insignificant black dot and neglected to see all that white paper.

This story reminds me of the way many believers look at the bible, relationships and even situations in life. So often we judge a person by one tiny black dot while missing all the other aspects of that person's life. We dislike one thing about someone, and make that our assessment of them as a human being. Since they are not perfect, as we see perfect, we dismiss any other things that might be beneficial and even wonderful.

Sadly this shows a mentality of desire to dislike someone, more than a desire to understand them as a whole person. No one is only one little black dot, everyone has a bigger picture, but when we harbor jealousy, bitterness and determination to destroy in our hearts, we are not able to see the "white paper", we will only see the black dot, ironically enough we don't think we have a black dot or we would understand that no one is without a dot.

Some people are a black piece of paper with a white dot in the center, everyone knows people like that, all unbelievers are in this state because they have not been born again. However, even non-believers can be very nice people who do good works. My focus here is believers who are determined to judge the character of other believers based on one black dot.

When the focus is the one black dot, then we can see nothing else, leaving no room for loving acceptance in spite of frailties. Love overlooks personality flaws and idiosyncrasies. The only way we can love this way is if we understand that we have our own warts and flaws that others must endure.

Self righteousness is deadly among those who claim to be believers. It causes division and deep hurt, rather than fostering a search for truth together, the mentality is one of isolation from those who are perceived to be imperfect.

Sharing the truth with a believer should be an experience of seeking together to come to commonality in the Word. Often sharing is not loving, but mean and cruel and it is meant to squash and maime. The purpose of many people is to "win" rather than to share. Winning has no place in the heart of a believer, our goal ought to be to help one another come closer to truth ultimately glorifying God.