The first of sinners

I think an explanation is in order.  In a prayer just before we partake of the Eucharist in the Divine Liturgy, we label ourselves "the chief of sinners".  Some jurisdictions use the phrase, "the first of sinners".  This phase always came across to me as somewhat odd and possibly a statement of false humility.  I am far from being an exceptionally godly person, but at the same time there are others far more wicked than I. 
But it finally occurred to me that I misunderstood the point of that phrase.  Instead of identifying depth or breadth of sin, we are instead being called to see our own sins first, we are the "first" of sinners. 
One of the huge things I have learned since coming into the Orthodox church is that of being non judgmental.  As a former Calvinist, one of the things that we taught, albeit subconsciously, is to identify, label and attack others for THEIR sins. The problem with this is that it is really easy to see other people's sins and condemn them for them, as foolish and ridiculous.  Of course it's easy to do so, these are not the sins with which we struggle.
The Orthodox faith, on the other hand, calls us to look at own own sins and weaknesses first, address them, deal with them and conquer them, then we can move on to help others.
We need to see our own sins first.  It is when we have conquered them that we will have the wisdom and humility to help others conquer their own sins, if they want help.
The overall point here?  We have plenty of sins of our own.  We need to identify and deal with them first.  And this will take far longer than we can imagine.