Thursday, March 11, 2010

Through a Glass, Darkly

Hey everyone, sorry for taking over a week, busy stuff lately. I'm hoping the 20th through the 28th to provide everyone with something pretty cool. That event I talked about before, MOTION? We are going to Oklahoma City to share the gospel for the second year. Lives will be changed and God will move in that city. During that week that I'm there, I'm hoping to have some pictures for all of what's going on and provide some details and stories throughout the week. I just got to get a hold of a camera. Either way, prepare to hear some great stuff then. Anyway, enough with that!

What I want to share with you all is some insight God has revealed to me this week. First I want to share with you a story.

I've had glasses since 6th grade. For the last year, I've really started needing them. I can do okay at school squinting and such and driving is pretty good, without them. Night time though, and if I need to find streets in an unfamiliar place, I'm blind. I'm nearsighted. All my life, I've been terrified of getting things near my eyes. I refuse to open my eyes in water, I've never used eye drops, fingers and other objects near my face make me fidget. I had a slight eye proximity phobia. Nothing I would let anyone see, but I guarantee if any of those things would happen the little guy in my head would be screaming himself deaf. Contacts were the tools of sadists and the devil. Just saying.

Well, I also have a huge disdain for glasses though, which is why I ninety-nine percent of the time was out and about half blind. Sometimes they caused headaches, other times they fell off. I didn't like how I looked, etc. They bugged me. So I finally came to the end of the rope. Contacts or live in my personal blurred cage.

So I did it. I made an appointment to get contacts. My entire drive there, I had some serious fears going through my head. It's going to hurt! It'll get stuck! Grotesque infections! I lose them! You get the idea.

Well I went into the eye clinic got my eyes checked and got to the point of sticking this thin little piece of plastic onto my eyeball. Lord help me. I did it though. Pretty quickly and effectively too. Then I did it again. After that, I popped them out (not literally popped them…eek.) and then put them in a second time. Awesome.

Here's the point though. When I put those contacts in, it was like I had never seen in my life. It blew what I had seen through glasses out of the water. I felt like a new man. I wanted to run and see everything I could, because it felt like I was seeing for the first time. It was such a great feeling, that I didn't go back to school that day. I decided it's a beautiful and nice day, I can see, I want to live in this moment. So I went about taking everything in for the day. I felt like I was seeing Fayetteville in a completely different way, a whole new perspective. That's what this story is about. Perspectives.

You see I had become blinded to what was going on around me. At some point I figure I had at least as good of vision as I had with contacts, if not better. Through time though, my vision waned until I came to where I am now. This didn't happen overnight. I didn't just wake up unable to see. It was a slow progression. For how many of us is that the case for our spiritual life? How many of us have had a slow progression into blindness? How much is that true for us as a whole? As a society?

The fact is humanity has been on a slow slide into blindness since the day we took the fruit. We wanted to have knowledge, but instead have become blinded with ignorance. Look at Romans 1:19-22 and Matthew 13:13-15. The word of God shows the same thing.

Back to you personally though. You can't hope for society to change if you can't even do it yourself. It's like the Casting Crowns' song "Slow Fade". "Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid, when you give yourself away.
People never crumble in a day.
" You don't become a murderer, a gossiper, a thief all in one day. You make a progression to a point where finally you reach a threshold which from where you use to be standing seemed to be impossible to cross, but now is but a mere footstep. We have to realize every time we have a sinful thought, we need to resist. Every time a righteous idea comes to mind, we need to go for it. It may seem like its just one idea, but they add up. One sin adds to another and suddenly you are something you never imagined you could be. One great God-given idea adds on top of another and suddenly you don't have to even think about doing it. You just do. We are creatures of habit. We need to always keep things in perspective. Every sin counts. Every good work counts. Neither truly matter in terms of salvation, except that Christ died for every last sin and that we are free of them. They do matter in a believer's walk.

I challenge you to open your eyes. Open your eyes and SEE. Break down paradigms. Listen\read\see thought-provoking ideas and challenging notions. Look into yourself and what you think you have down pat, rethink it. Look at every action you take, every thought you think. Take it back to the bible and check yourself against it. It's the only true perspective. Be courageous and ask others what they think of you. Ask them to tell you the good things and the bad things. Don't get upset; try to take in their perspective. Next time you see that bum on the road. Don't be quick to judge him. Think about all the different paths life could have taken you and realize you could have been there. Challenge the way things are. Ask what does it mean to worship? What does a relationship with God mean? What does it mean to love? You will be surprised at what you will find. What is God really like? We may only be at the shore of His Ocean, but it only takes 6 inches to drown. DIVE! Your world will only grow that much more beautiful and vibrant. Always remember to check yourself against God's Word though. It's infallible. Regain the sight you've been losing spiritually. So what do you say? Are you going to face your fears and see the world for what it is? Good and bad? You have my two cents, tell me what you think.


 

Much Love,

Luke


"When a mother saw a thunderstorm forming in mid-afternoon, she worried about her seven-year-old daughter who would be walking the three blocks from school to home. Deciding to meet her, the mother saw her walking nonchalantly along, stopping to smile whenever lightning flashed. Seeing her mother, the little girl ran to her, explaining happily, "All the way home, God's been taking my picture!" Fear is often caused by our perspective."

"Rather than saying "God, here is my problem," we should put the problem into perspective by saying, "Problem, here is my God!"

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."  - Henri Bergson

"Was blind but now I see." – John Newton

1 comments:

Patrinas Pencil said...

Well,Luke, seems as if I'm as blind as you are! I've worn glasses since I was 3 and didn't walk until I was 2 or more because I was also born crosseyed. I remember the first time I wore contacts! (They cost $800 a pair by the way - in that day) But I could see leaves on a tree for the first time in my life!! I know the feeling. I walk around half blind as it is now - as my glasses are $1000 and who can afford updated glasses at that price tag?

But God.... because of my lack of physical sight - the Lord has given me an extra measure of spiritual eyesight. And for me, that a great trade off. My hearing is magnified too - Which alows me to hear that small still voice of the Lord when He's whispering my name.

I like that line by Henri Bergson "The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."

But if you bypass the physical eyes - and the mind - the spiritual eyes can see a whole different dimension - like in dreams and visions.

Interesting, isn't it?

Congratulations on your new set of eyes!!

Blessings
Patrina <")>><
His watchman on the wll

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