By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Three blind mice! Three blind mice! See how they run! See how they run!
I don’t know about three blind mice, but I do know one thing: if three mice ever came running through our house, Sherrie might suddenly experience a miraculous recovery. I’ve never met anyone more afraid of mice than my wife. And I mean afraid.
Sherrie has been confined to bed since last November, and these days it takes quite a bit of help to get her up and moving. But I’m fairly convinced that if a mouse scampered across the foot of her bed, she’d leap out, run downstairs, and leave me behind to deal with the mouse. I’m not recommending this as a therapeutic technique, mind you. But it does make me smile when I think about those three blind mice!
As children, we probably never considered how strange that picture is. Three mice. All blind. All running. Which raises an obvious question: If they can’t see, how do they know where they’re going? Funny enough, Jesus raises a similar question in Matthew 7. Not about mice, of course. About us! “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
Today, those words are often used to mean, “You can’t tell me I’m wrong.” However, Jesus is not implying that we should never evaluate. A few verses later, He instructs us to identify false prophets by their fruit or by direct experience, which requires discernment—the wisdom to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, and good from evil. Once you develop discernment, you’ll begin to see the false prophets Jesus referred to, hiding in the shadows of reality. It’s quite radical in our day and age. In the church, politics, business, families, leadership…everywhere.
Jesus isn’t telling us to stop seeing. He’s teaching us how to see clearly. Then He gives us an unforgettable picture: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” ~ Matthew 7:3. Imagine someone with a two-by-four sticking out of their eye saying, “Hold still, I think you’ve got something in yours.” Ridiculous? Absolutely. That’s the point.
We humans are remarkably good at seeing everyone else’s specks while remaining blind to our own logs. Fear, pride, hurt, assumptions, experiences, disappointments, even religious traditions can distort our vision. And when they do, we can mistake our interpretation for reality… and then we react. We accuse. We condemn. We run – Three blind mice. See how they run.
Jesus offers something better: “First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly.” There it is: see clearly. Before running with a thought, examine it. Before condemning someone, examine yourself. Bring what you think you’re seeing into the light of God’s presence, truth, and Kingdom. That’s the Discernment Weapon.
Discernment is learning to recognize reality through eyes increasingly trained by TRUTH—your eyes first, then others.
Maybe Sherrie, in my fun little example of her running, isn’t the only one who occasionally runs before seeing clearly. We all do. Jesus invites us to stop. Look again. Let Him reshape our thoughts until we see ourselves, others, and God’s Reality more clearly. Then—and only then—run.
Three blind mice. See how they run.
Perhaps it’s time we learned to see as we take the initiative to seek God’s real Kingdom. Next week, “The Discretion Weapon.”
As always…God is here. God is able. God is good.
Pastor Drake
I’ll be continuing this conversation later this week on the Just Sayin’ podcast, where we’ll take a deeper look at The Discernment Weapon: Three Blind Mice!
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so, we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.