Whitney Williams - Low-life mattress dumpers

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, April 14th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Hey, got some news for you. Wanted to let you know our team is in the thick of a website makeover, and you’ll see it very soon.

The goal, as our marketing team says, is a site design that matches our journalism: clear, refined, and intuitive. So look for a new look coming to wng.org.

REICHARD: When? When? When? Do we have a day and time?

EICHER: All I can say is it’s coming in April. The team has literally been working night and day, tweaking this, rearranging that—basically spraying for bugs. There’s no one more eager to flip the switch than our web team. We just wanted you to know it’s coming this month. Could be anytime in the next few weeks.

REICHARD: I’ve been looking at the work they’ve been doing, and it’s impressive. Good job.

Up next on The World and Everything in It, Commentator Whitney Williams now on our tendency to condemn others and give ourselves a pass.

WILLIAMS: Keep that line real tight.

JAKE: Those fish are crazy, Daddy. They bite.

WHITNEY WILLIAMS, COMMENTATOR: Back in March, on a warm Monday evening, my husband, our three little boys, and I tromped through a cold, North Texas creek in search of white bass. The “sandbass,” as we call them in these here parts, had recently swum upstream from the lake to spawn. And, in spite of our herd-of-water-buffalo-like entrance, they couldn’t resist our minnows. After catching two dinners worth, my husband called it a night and we slowly waded back toward the bridge where we’d parked our minivan. I trailed behind my crew, thinking on the beauty of God’s creation and the brain-eating amoeba that might be entering my bloodstream thanks to a filet knife that had embedded itself into my foot a week prior.

SOUND: SPLASHING, WALKING

Squeals of delight suddenly jogged me from my thoughts: “Look Mom, a trampoline!” one of my boys yelled as he and his two brothers hopped up and down on a dingy, waterlogged mattress they’d just discovered underneath the shallow water.

AUDIO: It’s a mattress! It’s an old mattress…

My first thought was “nasty!”

My second thought was judgmental: “What kind of low-class, trashy person dumps a mattress in a creek? Surely a Christian wouldn’t do such a thing.”

God immediately knocked my pride down a notch.

“Whitney Williams: Did you or did you not once smash a stranger’s mailbox with a metal pole in an effort to impress a teenage crush?”

“Guilty,” I responded in my head, once again repenting of my teenage stupidity.

How quickly I had raised myself above another.

And don’t we do that so often—measure our holiness by another’s sinfulness? “At least I never had an abortion.” “At least I don’t watch porn.” “I could never cheat on my spouse!” We puff with pride while those we judge beat their breasts.

At the same time, we don’t witness. We don’t welcome foster children into our homes. We gossip. We watch questionable TV shows. We lust. We lie. We aren’t generous with our money. We’re vain. We’re racist, prideful, grumpy, ungrateful, easily angered, we harbor unforgiveness, we decide we can’t afford to tithe, we idolize politicians, we don’t respect our husbands, we look at our phones more than our children, we envy our friend’s home or job, we don’t spend time in the Word. We don’t volunteer at church, but simply consume. We stir up trouble on social media. We’re impatient. Gluttons. Worriers. We’re ugly. We’re sinful.

For the measuring stick lies not with our fellow man, but with Jesus, and next to Him, Romans 3:23 confirms, we all look like mattress dumpers, or worse yet, their discarded, water-logged, waste.

“Nasty!” says Satan, in an attempt to remind God of our sinfulness and betrayal. “No, not nasty,” God responds, thanks to Christ’s redemptive work on our behalf. “That’s my treasure.”

I’m Whitney Williams.

(Photo/iStock)

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.