Near-Sighted

My eye-sight is 20/400 uncorrected.

Line up four football fields end to end. Place a bill-board on the goal line of the first field which someone with normal vision can read from the end of the last field. I would have to stand on the twenty-yard line of the first field to see it. In other words I literally can't see past the end of my nose without my glasses.

Nearsightedness is dangerous.

Objects are not seen clearly until mere inches from my face. This is why I couldn't ride a bike until third grade when I got glasses. Things literally HIT me before I can see them. (My younger brothers had fun with this for a while.)

My focus is 20/400 or worse and uncorrected.

So my relationships, time money management and spiritual formation blur and fade. I frequently choose the immediate over the important. I focus on things as obstacles instead of opportunities. I mostly re-act rather than act. This, too, is dangerous with only moments to avert disasters that could have been avoided with a little far-sightedness.

Circumstances up close get the energy and attention. Long-term goals, plans and dreams are so unclear they disappear. The eternal gives way to the temporal.

Near-sightedness can be corrected.

Thank God for the times of re-vision He shared with me through Touchstone Community this week. A leader stepped up for our ladies small group citing I needed to be free to pursue other areas of the community's life. I don't have to do everything. A leader is emerging for the Worship Team and again, God is saying, "You can't do everything. Others won't try if you always step in the gaps."

During Sunday Celebration! I heard Him saying to me through me (Aside: It's quite an experience to hear the vox dei speaking through your own mouth...but don't we believe that God speaks through the preaching of the word for our people? Why else stand and share every week. Anyways...), I heard Him saying, "Fall in love with me again. Make knowing me your passion, your pursuit." Through the lens of worship (the Word and sacraments attended by a community with prayer and praise) my inner near-sightedness found correction. Like David before me, coming into the community to worship corrected my focus on nearby inequities and lifted my eyes to God!