My last trip to the eye doctor produced two pairs of glasses instead of one. Because of my age-a whopping 53-I now needed computer glasses AND distance glasses. My computer glasses I wear at work. The distance glasses were for when I was out and about running errands or for those days that I didn't want to wear contacts. After a few days I found that my computer glasses enabled me to see well enough to drive, so I stopped carrying both pairs of glasses and just wore my computer glasses. They don't correct my distance vision well enough to see house numbers and detail, but I found that I could get away with the computer glasses most of the time. After a while, I didn't even notice the difference.
The other night I actually sat down to watch a basketball game and decided to grab my distance glasses instead of my computer glasses. When I put them on I was startled at how clearly I could see the tv. I hadn't realized how much detail I was missing out on by wearing my computer glasses to watch tv. I had been satisfied with less than perfect vision because of the convenience of only carrying one pair of glasses but had missed out on the details of the things I had been seeing.
I think that, for the most part, we do the same thing with our spiritual lives. What we know and experience is good enough to get us through life and supply what we need to survive. Unfortunately, those things about living for Christ that we don't understand remain a mystery and our Christian experience is rather lack luster because we are not fully experiencing the power of God working in our lives. The Bible talks about being "dull of hearing." I think that we are also dull in vision as well. When a prayer is not answered the way we know God could have answered, when we struggle with something that we know God could fix, when we do not have the continual joy of the Lord, we accept it or find some pseudo-spiritual explanation for it instead of just admitting that we missed some details along the way that would have changed the course of events to line up with what we know is God's best. We settle for blurry vision instead of searching out the scriptures, taking an honest look at what's lacking in our own knowledge, experience and faith. After a while the Christian life can become dull and we start to slip away from God instead of drawing closer to Him.
Clearly scripture tells us that "we see through a mirror dimly now, but then face to face." We will never see completely clearly until we are like Him, but surely we are not living in the revelation that the disciples had nor walking in the power of the early church Fathers. We have "settled" for partial vision. We must apply the salve of the Word of God, receiving God at His Word, and allow faith to build in our hearts so that we can see and know God in the fullness that was provided for by the death and resurrection of Christ. It is then that the world will see that truly what we have is different and desirable. We really do them a dis-service by living with blurred spiritual vision and we misrepresent God to a lost and dying planet.
The other night I actually sat down to watch a basketball game and decided to grab my distance glasses instead of my computer glasses. When I put them on I was startled at how clearly I could see the tv. I hadn't realized how much detail I was missing out on by wearing my computer glasses to watch tv. I had been satisfied with less than perfect vision because of the convenience of only carrying one pair of glasses but had missed out on the details of the things I had been seeing.
I think that, for the most part, we do the same thing with our spiritual lives. What we know and experience is good enough to get us through life and supply what we need to survive. Unfortunately, those things about living for Christ that we don't understand remain a mystery and our Christian experience is rather lack luster because we are not fully experiencing the power of God working in our lives. The Bible talks about being "dull of hearing." I think that we are also dull in vision as well. When a prayer is not answered the way we know God could have answered, when we struggle with something that we know God could fix, when we do not have the continual joy of the Lord, we accept it or find some pseudo-spiritual explanation for it instead of just admitting that we missed some details along the way that would have changed the course of events to line up with what we know is God's best. We settle for blurry vision instead of searching out the scriptures, taking an honest look at what's lacking in our own knowledge, experience and faith. After a while the Christian life can become dull and we start to slip away from God instead of drawing closer to Him.
Clearly scripture tells us that "we see through a mirror dimly now, but then face to face." We will never see completely clearly until we are like Him, but surely we are not living in the revelation that the disciples had nor walking in the power of the early church Fathers. We have "settled" for partial vision. We must apply the salve of the Word of God, receiving God at His Word, and allow faith to build in our hearts so that we can see and know God in the fullness that was provided for by the death and resurrection of Christ. It is then that the world will see that truly what we have is different and desirable. We really do them a dis-service by living with blurred spiritual vision and we misrepresent God to a lost and dying planet.
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