Straining at gnats; Swallowing camels

“Whatever you condemn, you have done yourself.” Georg Groddeck

  If anyone or any group can cause me to shake my head in disbelief, it seems to be government or some elected official. It’s why I limit my exposure to the media. I find that limited doses of news stories, particularly about government, keeps my blood pressure down.

  I’m sure you heard about it. It left me shaking my head in disbelief. Recently, Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, and real estate mogul, Donald Trump, have been littering the airwaves with their sparring over Trump installing a sign on his building, 20-foot-high letters spelling out his name on the 96-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago, the city’s second-tallest building. Mayor Emanuel called them “architecturally tasteless.”

  What’s particularly noteworthy, in Chicago, like most major cities, you can hardly sneeze without city approval. Mayor Emanuel’s own administration had approved it before the letters were installed. Now, though according to the news reports, the Mayor's office has had a change of heart and is looking at options to get the sign taken down or at least reduced in size. Mayor Emanuel's spokesperson, Kelley Quinn, said of the sign: The Mayor "believes this is an architecturally tasteful building scarred by an architecturally tasteless sign." Ouch!

  Personally, I just don’t get it. It’s a sign on the man’s building that he owns. It’s his name. They even essentially match. It’s not like they’re garish orange or flaming hot pink. They’re grey letters installed on the side of a grey building.

  Somehow it all seems very petty, particularly in the light of Chicago’s other news. Chicago has an escalating murder rate. 108 so far this year, with 421 last year. There have been over 600 shooting victims so far this year. Chicago residents have the highest sales tax rate of any city in the country and carry one of the highest tax rates overall. Meanwhile, Chicago beats out even Los Angeles for the highest unemployment percentage among the top 10 metro areas in population. While Chicago Public Schools are graduating nearly 20,000 seniors each year, nearly 10,000 of the CPS students who enter ninth grade, drop out before he or she graduate. And we all know that these young people just don't disappear. Probe what plagues Chicago — violence, unemployment, poverty, teen pregnancy — and you find those same former students who fell behind and dropped out. In light of all of the major problems in Chicago, six letters, even 20-foot-high letters, seems very petty.

  The dictionary defines “pettiness” as of little or no importance or consequence; of lesser or secondary importance, merit; minor; having or showing narrow ideas, interests. Essentially, pettiness is a lack of perspective. It’s focusing on the minutia, yet missing the monumental. It was the sin of the Pharisees. Jesus rebuked them for their pettiness, telling them that they “strained out gnats and swallowed a camel” (Matthew 23:24).

  And there’s my problem…I just can’t believe how petty that I can be sometimes. While I can see how silly Mayor Emmanuel is, I don’t as quickly see how silly I am, or how petty I can be. How about you?

  Pettiness goes hand in hand with a critical spirit. When I devolve into pettiness, I find that I focus on the one or two things wrong, yet miss all that’s right. I see a slightly skewed outcome, rather than a pure motive and heart’s intent. And I miss, that just like the Pharisees, I, too, am “straining out gnats and swallowing a camel.” Pettiness, for me, too easily succumbs to perfectionism when I know that I am light years, if not galaxies away from being perfect in my own life.

  The late, Walt Disney, was a perfectionist but his brother Roy was a realist. In Disney Studios early days, when they were racing for a Christmas release of Snow White, Walt Disney reviewed a nearly completed version of the film. He noticed something that really, really bothered him. It seems that when the Prince leaned over to kiss Snow White in her glass coffin, he shimmied. Did you catch that he “shimmied.” Somehow something had gone wrong in the camera work or animation. “I want to make it over,” Walt announced to his brother, Roy. “How much will it cost?” Roy asked. Walt replied that it would require several thousand dollars. “Forget it!” said Roy, who had already borrowed all that he could. “Let the Prince shimmy.” And ever afterward, he did.

  Life is never even close to being perfect. Most of the time, you just have to choose to “let it go” and let the Prince shimmy, and enjoy the film.

  All of us would do well to pray along with Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland (1542-1587). Ken Gire cites her in his book, Between Heaven and Earth: Prayers and Reflections That Celebrate an Intimate God:   

Keep us, O God, from all pettiness.

Let us be large in thought, in word, in deed.

Let us be done with faultfinding

and leave off all self-seeking.

May we put away all pretense and meet each other face to face,

without self-pity and without prejudice.

May we never be hasty in judgment,

and always be generous.

Let us always take time for all things,

and make us grow calm, serene and gentle.

Teach us to put into action our better impulses,

to be straightforward and unafraid.

Grant that we may realize

that it is the little things of life that create differences,

that in the big things of life we are as one.

And, O Lord God, let us not forget to be kind!

  By God’s grace, let’s determine to make the main thing the main thing and learn to overlook the trivial and petty. Not only will it help our own spirits, it will make us a whole lot easier to live with for those around us and a better testimony for our gracious Lord.