Bruxism is the excessive grinding of teeth common among children, according to research; and it has its several causes which include dehydration, stiffness of muscles, stress etc.
It had been long since I last shared a bedroom with my little brother, and I was constantly awakened by episodes of him grinding his teeth at night. I was maddened. Initially, being an African, I had been influenced by the superstitions that it was as a result of witchcraft.
Turns out it’s basic science!
In the morning, after I could not take it anymore, I approached him and told him of this bruxism of his. I superciliously scolded him, until he innocently looked back at me and said “but you also grind your teeth! You even begin quite early as soon as you fall asleep!”
“WHAT! YOU’RE LYING!” I recoiled.
“Even Ken knows it! You can ask him!”
Suddenly, I grew cold and timid. My anger left.
My cousin Ken confirmed the accusation. And even if I wasn’t happy about it, my entire outlook changed, especially now that I knew that I unconsciously did it. The nights that followed when I could hear my brother grind his teeth, I had to bear it. I looked on him with compassion and not anger,with grace and not judgement, knowing well that even he, when he’s awake, it’d be me interrupting his sound sleep.
This reminds me of that time when Jesus asked whoever had never sinned and yet accused the woman caught in adultery for being a sinner — to cast the first stone! Things change when we realize that the thing we condemn other people for doing is what we do involuntarily.
It’s that that shows us the log in our eyes as we seek to judge the speck in others’. For this case, my brother and I had the same ‘sin’. For many others we may not have the same sin, but it is all sin. Such teach us humility, and strangle pride out of us.
As we condemn others for staying up all night practising pornography, we forget to condemn ourselves for lusting on thousands of sexy looking women and half dressed lascivious men whose videos and images suffuse our Instagram feeds and reels. It could not be ‘bodies’ but clothes as well, or gadgets — lusting incessantly to own at least one of any.
We say Peter cowered at the overwhelming waves and began to sink, but we forget he was the only one mad enough to step out of that boat and walk those few steps on water. We preach about it, yet we haven’t attempted to do even what Jesus said we would, because, if you notice, the thing that made Peter walk on water wasn’t inclined toward his doing. The power lied in what Jesus said, which was ‘Come to me’.
Meaning if Jesus — He that wields all authority in the universe — said we could heal the sick and raise the dead, then indeed we can, for He’s dispensing those commands from the authority He hails from and is clothed with, which has no corner it can’t touch and no thing that can’t recognize its power!
That’s deviation aside, today’s article was mainly to portray how mercy works. We not only forgive others because we are unforgivable. We do because we too shall be in need of forgiveness at a tee. Mercy is provoked when we realize we have been in the same state, or might be. The problem is we think we haven’t been in the same state because we haven’t been in a specific situation before.
Having never committed murder doesn’t mean we have never committed sin. Having never committed adultery doesn’t mean we have never stolen something. See? Your attitude suddenly changes, having seen the log in your eye.
Life will always bring us someone to judge quickly, but authentic judgement emerges when we first judge ourselves, and then convey the same measure upon others. If we were in the crowd that day, and had never sinned, we’d have freely stoned that woman who was caught in adultery. But since none of us did, it shows that Jesus enabled us to carry out the authentic judgement — where which we first observed ourselves and then, seeing we didn’t deserve death, we deemed it wise that the woman neither did.
Jesus showed each one of us the logs in our eyes. Thus we wouldn’t judge the speck in her’s. But like He spoke that day, it takes Him to speak audibly in every Christian’s head for us to apply such wisdom. And when we extend this mercy, it’s what gives men second shots at life. It’s what makes men get blanketed by compassion. It’s this goodness that leads them to repentance. It’s this repayment of good to evil that piles of hot coals on men’s intellects and boggle their mindsets to ponder on holiness… when as we point out their specks, we begin with our logs, or show them ours first.
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Matthew 7:1-5 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
(NLT)
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