Vision

I’m one of those kinds of people who take out their contacts in the evening and end up spending the next ten to fifteen minutes looking around trying to remember where I put my glasses. I normally spend the majority of the time looking around my bed, even though I know that I have searched every inch of that area. I am often required to stop and think for a moment where I put them last. They tend to be sitting out in the open when I do find them, but I was too busy looking elsewhere to notice.

This week I felt an awful lot like I was walking around aimlessly trying to find my glasses. I think that far too often in our daily lives we are walking around with blurred vision searching for something in all the wrong places. When I first began writing, I promised that I would share God’s truth and not try to drown it out with my passion to write. I wanted my passion to illuminate God’s truth, but I didn’t want to make it about myself in the process. My words have no value if God is not speaking through them. We are nothing without God, and we constantly need to be aware of our spiritual stubbornness.

My week started out just like every other week. I got into my routine and schedule of doing work and class. But it became clear right away that this was going to be a busy week. Naturally, the first thing that got kicked out of my schedule was my Bible reading, unfortunately. As the week progressed, it hit me all of a sudden that I have not taken much time to think about a topic for my next blog post. That has become a priority to me every week, and it often replaced time I could be spending with God in his word. After I took a little bit of time brainstorming, a topic struck me. I was immediately hooked; I had the topic, some points to highlight, and scripture to back it up. I was all set and ready to go. But something was missing. As I began to write, the words were not falling into place at all. But I kept fighting to find some sort of beauty in it. I was thinking and praying with everything I had that God would pour his blessing upon it. In a way, I felt as if this idea or concept I had in mind was too good not to share. I was frustrated as hours and days were beginning to waste away while I sat staring at this screen completely empty of thought. The ironic part about the whole situation was that I was writing on the beauty in God’s truth, but God’s truth was the very thing that I chose to neglect. I chose to prioritize my words over God’s Word. But I stubbornly continued to look for beauty and truth in my own writing, even though I was writing about how beauty can only be found in truth; God’s sovereign truth. I was looking for something that was not there. I was looking for answers in the wrong places, and ignorantly forsook the truth God was trying to show me.

Are you pursuing something right now that just isn’t turning out quite how you would like? This is not a “give up on your dreams” message. But is there a door in front of you that just does not seem to be opening? Maybe it is a specific job that you can’t seem to get, or a crush that really doesn’t seem interested, or a stupid blog post that really is not falling into place. Maybe God has something better in mind for you, and that emptiness you feel is the Spirit yearning for you to look elsewhere. Romans 8:26 says,

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”

In the rush of the week, there are rarely times where we stop and listen to the voice that is speaking to us. We are weak during the week; we are blind during the week, and we wonder why life isn’t making much sense. The answer is inside of you. The Spirit is making intercession with our hearts, trying to guide you away from that door you keep hurting your face on as you walk blindly into it. For me, it was the pause at the end of the busy week that brought me to the realization that the treasure I was digging for was not really there. It was made up in my head. It was in the moment when I stopped to think, that I remembered where my glasses were. Romans 8:27 says,

“And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

We should continually be searching our hearts and listening to the Spirit. But the most blatant thing that we miss is the cornerstone that gives us strength during the week: God’s Word. God speaks to us through his word. But that involves picking it up and reading it. Don’t set it down during a difficult week, immerse yourself in it even more. It’s a simple concept, but if I didn’t take my contacts out, finding my glasses would have been a whole lot easier. Staying in God’s Word is the same idea. We are more focused and aware of the things God is putting in front of our eyes when we chose to abide in him on a regular basis. The answer may be right in front of you, standing in the open, but our blindness forbears us to see it. Hebrews 4:12 says,

“For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it discerns the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

God’s Word is a weapon that pierces even our hearts and souls. It gives us vision to see and properly discern our thoughts and attitudes. It equips us to do the same with those around us. We don’t need to rely on our blurred vision to maneuver in this world, and we should not tunnel our vision towards an empty deceit. Open your eyes, open your mind and let the Spirit direct your steps.