Willisburg Bulletin 8.4.24
BLURRED VISION
Have you ever been somewhere where you are sitting there waiting maybe at an appointment or something and you start looking at the architecture? You see the colors, woodworking, stone maybe. But them you start looking closer and start to see the slight imperfections. Maybe there is a small bit of paint that’s been scratched or the picture is hanging crooked. How about maybe a cobb-web or a bug or some dust on the woodwork. The little things that you wouldn’t see if you weren’t looking for it. You see what I’m getting at? Or how about you don’t ever see a certain make and model of a vehicle until you buy one and then you see them at ever stoplight it seems, right? You never have paid attention to that specific car until you are thinking about it and then you begin to see it. If you look closely, you could see it. No matter how nice we have it, we are still capable of nit-picking our situation to death while making ourselves oblivious to the blessings around us. We start finding all the negatives and completely ignoring the beauty and how good we actually have it. You see, we usually notice what we train our eyes to see. Even in a beautiful place or calm situation, you can still find imperfections if that’s what you look for. If we look for beauty however, we can find that too.
Spiritually thinking, the world is polluted and stained by sin, and most people are oblivious to it, but Christians see it. However, it can also go to the other extreme where sin is all we see because we have trained our mind to see it and it becomes a negative mentality. We are Christians must be careful not to go to one end or the other, both are wrong. If we think about ourselves, we often times are tainted with sin, yet Jesus with His clear vision sees more than that in us and is willing to forgive us completely. He makes us white as snow and able to see clearly. Without Him, we would be blinded in sin. We need to see more clearer as Jesus does and see the good. Not everything is evil around us. Even in a world that seems so wicked and out to get us, there is much good being done for God’s glory. Can you imagine what is would be like if we starting trying our minds to see the benefit and the good that can be done by working in God’s kingdom. I find too many times I hesitate to do something for the sake of what-ifs and thinking of all that could go wrong, instead of seeing what could go right and what good could result. God’s word is powerful and can still prick people’s hearts, but we have to get it out there. We are the Lord’s last messengers to spread His word. If we don’t do it, can you imagine what He is going to say about our generations? We need to be looking with clearer eyes and seeing the opportunities available to us for God’s word to be spread. We must be the light of the world that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. And in order to do that, we must first have clear vision to see the good of God and trust Him knowing He has the plan. If you are seeing the Word with a clear heart, you will be able to spread the Word by being the light and you won’t be looking for all the negatives. Just as the Matt 6 verse says, if your eye is bad, the body is full of darkness. If we are seeing all the negative in the world, we start thinking, we will never get anyone to obey the Word and we start doubting the power of the Word and we limit God’s ability to reach people’s hearts. Rather we need to be seeing the opportunities and looking for the good in every way understanding that the gospel still is the power to save and it’s not our judgment on who will or won’t obey. Let’s all check our vision and ensure it hasn’t started becoming blurred.