⁶ “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. ⁷ Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! ⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

Dear God, part of me wants to explore the idea of how literal Jesus was being in verses eight and nine, but I think I’m going to leave that one alone. Too complicated.

I am interested, however, in the idea of not being the cause of others to stumble. I was talking with a man yesterday who is leading a “new member class” for a given denomination. I’ve been in the class since September and I’ve decided that I’m not going to join simply because there are a couple theological issues in the way. That and, frankly, they want me to make a life-long commitment to this denomination and I’m not prepared to commit my life to any church or denomination for the rest of my life. But as the man and I talked and I brought up a couple of the theological differences he said that he wished I would have brought them up during the class so that we can discuss them. I told him I had no desire to do that because it didn’t matter to me if they disagreed with me or not and I didn’t want to plant any seeds of doubt in those going through the class. The theological differences don’t imperil the soul so they just aren’t important. I could tell he was frustrated with my answer, but it really was true.

I think one of the harder things to do is to decide how to best advise others when they are in crisis. My temptation is to give them guidance and direction. But what if my guidance and advice is wrong. I have another friend whose wife is going through a hard time. This friend is serving you in a very sacrificial and faithful way. There is a part of me that thinks that his service to you, though admirable, is asking too much of her. But I don’t dare advise him to change his service to you. I would NOT want to advise him in a way that is contradictory to your call to him. So I have done my best to just share my own life with him, invite him to share his with me, and then pray that you will guide him as he figures out how to minister to his wife.

Father, please keep me from feeling like I have to have the answers for everyone around me. Help me to lovingly support others while learning to be your words and hands to them. I don’t want to be a bad example to anyone with my personal actions, and I don’t want to be a bad advisor to someone with foolish words that are not of you. And as far as my eyes, hands, feet, and whatever else gets me in trouble goes, please be merciful to me as I don’t have the courage to disavow them.