Sally Johnson, a busy college student, doesn't have a lot of time for kitchen cleanup.  "I barely have time to eat, let alone wash dishes and all that.  I have a few dishes that Mom sent me, and I buy paper plates at the store.  Most days I use Mom's dishes and just throw 'em away when I'm done.  On weekends and days when I have enough time to wash dishes, I'll use the paper plates and carefully clean them afterward."

How silly!  Who in their right mind would throw away perfectly good dishes, and spend time washing paper plates that are going to fall apart?   You won't believe this, but according to information I have just received, that someone is you.  And me.  And every one else.

I have just gotten word about two dangerous genetic diseases sweeping the general population.  Apparently every single person is infected; no one is immune to these strange symptoms.  The diseases have been scientifically labeled put-projects-before-people syndrome, and holier-than-thou-itis.  The first has the dangerous effect of causing you to put your priorities in the exact opposite order they should be in.  Holier-than-thou-itis is more pernicious!  Take my case, for example.  The other day I saw someone doing something that I wouldn't do.  Being symptomatic with holier-than-thou-itis, I immediately thought how much "better" I was than they.  I don't remember thinking, "Ooo, I'm better than that person!" but it definitely came out in my attitude!  There are many other ways this happens.  I know you can think of some examples, like not talking with someone, or avoiding them.  But let's talk about me and what happened with…ah….

Well, my attitude was, of course, very annoying to this person, and looking back on the situation I can understand why.  After all, when I sense that someone is looking down on me, I don't say to myself,  "Goodness, look at that annoyingly perfect person!  They are an excellent example of perfect character.  I need to be more like that person.  I need to change!"  No, no, no, no, it's more like, "Get me away from this proud, self-righteous jerk!"

Needless to say, these responses toward other people do not quite coincide with Jesus' example.  These two illnesses affect every person living today.  What's more; there's no known cure.  In some cases, a person may go into remission, with the symptoms disappearing for months or even years, but they inevitably reappear; sometimes when the patient least suspects it!  There has been only one documented case of a person being free from the symptoms his entire life, and that was nearly two thousand years ago.

But don't give up hope: there is a treatment!  Research shows that the only foolproof preventative against the symptoms of these two maladies is a pair of glasses, so to speak.  Put-projects-before-people syndrome and holier-than-thou-it-is are really vision problems, caused by seeing things the wrong way!  When you're looking down or up at people, you're seeing them from your eyes.  But your perspective is distorted!  The only way you can clearly and accurately see people, situations, or anything else, is by looking at them from God's perspective.  This perspective, when it comes to people, is understood through an analogy.  I call it, "The Dish Connection."

The first part of The Dish Connection was the story about Ditzy Sally.  Of course it's absolutely ridiculous to throw real plates away and try to wash paper plates, but everyone does it at one point or another.  After all, the Bible says that the universe is made up of paper plates that will eventually fall apart and be destroyed.  There are only a few real dishes that will last forever: God, His Word, and people.

Okay, so the Bible doesn't say anything about paper plates.  It does say that everything is going to be "thrown away" except for God, His Word, and people.  Look around.  What do you see?  If it isn't made of flesh and blood and soul and spirit, it'll end up in the Cosmic Garbage Compactor.  Just think about it.  Your neighbors, friends, relatives; every person is going to live on and on forever and ever and ever and ever!

Keeping that in mind, consider how foolish it is that instead of taking care of the things that will last forever and ever--instead of loving people, helping them out, getting to know them, helping them grow--we spend our time working on our careers, our education, hobbies, entertaining ourselves, and all sorts of things that may not be wrong, but won't survive Garbage Day.  We throw away opportunities to spend time with and build up people, in essence throwing away the real plates and spend all our time washing the paper.

The other part of the "Dish Connection" takes place after a church picnic:

Generic Community Church has just had its annual church picnic, and the kitchen is a mess!  Everywhere you look, dirty dishes are piled high on the countertops, all in the process of being washed.  Some particularly tough cases are being soaked; others are being washed, then rinsed and dried.  But most of the dishes are still sitting on the counter, as the dishwashers haven't had a chance to get to them yet.

Interestingly enough, there seems to be some bad blood between the different groups of dishes.  One plate, upon exiting the dishwater and being put under the rinse water, caught a glimpse of some dirty dishes across the way and said, "Look at those dirty plates!  Hah!  I'm sure glad I'm clean and not filthy like them!  Hey!  Dirty plates!  I'm better than you!"

Pretty ridiculous attitude, eh?  Almost as bad as Ditzy Sally's!  After all, that plate didn't do anything to get cleaner than the other plates; someone else washed it off.  Why should it think better of itself because of something someone else did?

But that's exactly what you do when you have holier-than-thou-itis.  This whole world is nothing but a kitchen full of dirty dishes, and God's on dish duty.  He has some plates soaking, some He's washing; some He's rinsing, others He's drying.  Some are still sitting on the counter.  Every plate is at a different stage in the process, so naturally, at a given point in time, some dishes are going to be cleaner than others.  But that doesn't make the clean plates better than the other plates!  Underneath all the caked-on food, they're all dishes.  That's what God sees: the plate, the person, the soul that will last.  That's what He cares about.  He also sees the dirt, and acknowledges that, yes; His precious dishes are dirty.  He hates the dirt, and He doesn't want any of His dishes to be dirty, so He's doing everything He can to get those plates clean.

God's working on all of us.  When you see someone "dirtier" than you are, instead of exalting in your own self-righteousness, remember this analogy, and try to see that person from God's eyes.  Also, when you sense someone having that holier-than-thou attitude toward you, look at yourself  through God's eyes.  Remember that you are not perfectly clean!  There is still plenty of stuff He needs to get off of you!  But also find hope in the fact that you're a lot cleaner than you were when He started, and you're in the hands of The Dishwasher, who can make all dirty dishes clean again.

When you find yourself struggling with the symptoms of put-people-before-projects or holier-than-thou-itis, take a moment to change your perspective.  Are you seeing people the way God sees them?

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