Tunnel Vision

This is the third in the Vision-Impairment series of posts.

Tunnel vision is a narrowed field of vision. The loss of peripheral perception of tunnel vision limits activity and accuracy of actions. Things might hit us literally from the blind side, because there is so much blind side.

Narrowed field of vision...
Jesus said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness." Matthew 6.22-23

So often we focus so tightly on the limited world that is our life. We do so to the exclusion of others around us. We actually get more moved that an accident on the highway will make us late for our shopping than we are that one or more human beings quite possibly have suffered loss or physical hurt.

We see how things affect us and seldom realize how things might be affecting others. Our vision has veen diseased with "You deserve a break today!" mentality of entitled America.

We tune in to hours of "reality" TV where folks cry because they have lost weight, are trying to win the "love"of some personality or survived. The family next door might be facing autism in a child, the declining health of an aging parent or the raw anguish of gambling addiction. We might see it, but even then do little more than wish them well out of our car window on the way to some store.

Ever watch a funeral procession in the Middle East. Those folks are wailing--and with good reason. Someone they love has just died. They are at least in tune with what is happening around them.

Far-Sighted

Some time ago, I posted about my nearsightedness problem, both visual and visionary. Today, I will expand on that with a second edition of vision issues.

Farsightedness is the opposite condition of nearsightedness. It it the inability, or reduced ability, to see what is nearer and have clear focus at a distance. This is often remedied with "reading glasses" to be worn only for up close activities.

I think the church often suffers from farsightedness. We focus our sights on eternity to come and cannot see the existence that is. That explains why we do not take better care of our selves, our neighbors or our world. For, you see, it will all be better in the sweet by and by.

We abuse our bodies with practices like overeating, poor food choices, overexposure to UV and lack of exercise. We will have a new body at the resurrection, so we run this one into the ground--literally.

We will cross oceans, mountain ranges and deserts to bring Africans, Asians or others to Jesus. Yet, we won't cross the street to bring our neighbors who are of African, Asian or other descent to our church.

We will donate our used-up things to the needy but rarely donate ourselves in actual time and contact with the needy. By acting so impersonally, we further diminish the persons we seek to serve.

We claim "dominion" over the earth as a license to remove the mountaintops, pollute the drinking water and fill the ground with disposable everything to satisfy our desire for convenience and profit. We forget that humanity's dominion was a charge to tend (manage like a steward) the earth.

Like a farsightedness condition in the eye, such church farsightedness can be corrected. The usual prescription is "reading glasses."

We need to re-read the Word and the world around us. We need to return to God asking him to teach us what is blessed and stop asking him to bless what we have already determined to do. We need to stop offering advice and answers and resources until we first discover what the problems, questions and challenges are. We need to reconnect with our neighborhoods, our homes and our world.

Think of the humility and wisdom of Jesus to ask an obviously blind man, "What do you want me to do for you?" May his life refocus the living of his body, the church.

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!