There are moments when life invites us to pause and examine not only what we see in others, but also what our responses reveal about our own hearts before the Lord. The way we interact with people can either open the door to understanding or build walls of pain that keep us separated. Sometimes, the greatest transformation begins when we ask God to change our perspective before we attempt to change someone else’s situation.
I watched a short reel that touched on a subject close to my own life. It reminded me of how easily we can overlook someone’s kindness when we become too focused on their circumstances that surround them. It said…
“If you visit someone’s house and the first thing you notice is the dust on the floor, the stains on the table, the smudges on the windows, the toys all around, don’t ever go back there again. Not because their house isn’t clean, but because your heart isn’t. Someone opened their door to you. They welcomed you into their home. They may have prepared food for you, offered you a seat at their table, shared their time, their stories, and their kindness with you. Yet instead of seeing their generosity, all you saw was a mess. The problem wasn’t in their home. The problem was in the lens through which you looked at it. Many people move through life this way. They enter relationships and see flaws instead of loyalty. They receive opportunities and see inconveniences instead of possibilities. They meet good people and focus on imperfections instead of character. Nothing in this world comes without flaws. Every home has dust somewhere. Every person has weaknesses. Every opportunity has challenges. A grateful heart notices the welcome before the dust, the kindness before the imperfections, and the blessing before the blemish. So when you enter someone’s home, look first for the love that lives there. If all you can see is the dust, it may not be the house that needs cleaning.”
The same spirit that causes us to push certain people to the margins of the church is the spirit that focuses on the dust in someone else’s house instead of recognizing the grace and humanity before us.
It is easy to notice another person’s failures while overlooking our own. It is easy to see someone’s addiction, poverty, past mistakes, or brokenness while missing their courage, dignity, and value as a person created in the image of God—someone who was brave enough to walk through the doors of the church building or welcome you into their life.
We must remember that the person sitting beside us may have fought battles we know nothing about. They may have walked through those doors carrying shame, grief, fear, or a desperate hope that someone might see them differently than they see themselves. What if, instead of becoming another reason for someone to feel rejected, we became part of the reason they believed healing and hope were still possible?
I pray often over the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
These words call us to look inward with humility before looking outward with judgment. Jesus does not ask us to pretend that struggles and mistakes do not exist. He calls us to examine our own hearts before we presume to correct someone else’s.
The question is not whether people have flaws, but whether we are willing to acknowledge our own while extending grace to those who need it more.
Every person carries a story we may never fully understand, a burden we may never have witnessed, and a struggle that may not be visible to the outside world. What we see as a flaw may be part of a much deeper journey toward healing, restoration, and hope.
Before we decide who belongs, who deserves another chance, or who is worthy of our presence, we must remember that God’s grace has met each of us in our own places of imperfection. None of us stands before God because we have lived a flawless life. We stand in need of the same mercy, forgiveness, and grace that we are called to extend to others.
When we learn to see people through the eyes of Christ rather than through the lens of judgment, we begin to love our neighbors as ourselves and reflect the heart of the Gospel. We become less concerned with appearances and more concerned with compassion. We become less focused on status and more focused on service. We become less interested in protecting our comfort and more willing to extend God’s grace outwardly and freely.
That is why certain verses are to be lived out like what is written in Romans 15:7 Welcome and receive [to your hearts] one another, then, even as Christ has welcomed and received you, for the glory of God.
Christ’s example gives us a clear standard for how we are called to treat one another. Welcoming people is not simply about allowing them to enter a building; it is about making sure they are treated with dignity, compassion, and the understanding that they belong among God’s people.
A church can have open doors and still have closed hearts. We can speak about love, grace, and forgiveness from the pulpits while allowing our attitudes, assumptions, and actions to communicate something very different in the pews. True welcome requires us to listen before judging, offer support instead of shame, and make room for people whose lives and experiences may be different from our own.
We may not be able to remove every burden someone carries, but we can choose not to add to it through our words, our silence, or our unwillingness to make room for them at the altar. We can choose to be a community where people can be honest about their struggles without fearing that their struggles will become the only thing others see. The Christian life is about helping others carry the burdens as much as possible
And in doing so, we create a place where all are welcomed with compassion, where no one is treated as less valuable because of their struggles, and where each of us remains humbly open to the conviction that God still has work to do in our own hearts.
As we reflect on the responsibility we have toward one another, Charles H. Spurgeon’s teachings on humility and judgment offer an important reminder: “We shall not have to answer for what they did, but for our daring to judge and condemn them.” We must be careful not to condemn others while forgetting our own need for God’s mercy. Our faith should lead us toward greater humility, deeper compassion, and a willingness to recognize that every person we encounter is someone God loves.
May our churches, our homes, and our relationships become places where people encounter grace before judgment and belonging before barriers. May we learn to recognize the image of God in every person, making room for honest struggles, new beginnings, and the healing that grows when love is offered without humiliation.
May our churches become places where the broken find healing, the weary find rest, and the searching find hope. May no one who walks through our doors leave believing that their struggles have made them less worthy of love, compassion, or belonging.
May we choose compassion over criticism, grace over rejection, and love over judgment. And may we never become so concerned with the dust in someone else’s house that we fail to recognize the grace of God that welcomed us into His own.
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My BeLoved, may the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen. In Christ Love, douglas. HE>i. pastord.blog
Special Note: I want to thank those who read what I write and are encouraged to support the ministry God has entrusted to me either one time or have decided to give on a monthly basis. I am encouraged to see certain verses playing out before my eyes like what is written in *Philippians 4:16 For even in Thessalonica you sent aid once and again for my necessities. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account.*
To any who are interested, please feel free to reach out to me with prayer requests, questions, encouragement, or for information on how to come alongside me with financial support at pastord.blog@gmail.com or I do have a Zelle account associated with my phone number, 5202720387 last name Blaser. Thank you my Beloved for your ongoing prayers and support.
