Two years ago I finally gave up the fight. I was in my mid 40s and had been spending a lot of time over the previous two years squinting. Squinting at pages of books, signs on the road, images on the television. My wife asked me one Sunday afternoon which version of the Bible I have been using in my sermons because the words I was saying didn't always match what was in her Bible. As a pastor, it is important that I get those words right! So I went to the optometrist and he evaluated my eyesight. Sure enough, I needed glasses (even bi-vocals). So, with prescription in hand, I went to the local Walmart and picked out a pair (I never realized there were so many options). I was fitted with a pair of lightweight frames and waited for them to be made.
When I picked them up a few days later and put them on, it was like a whole new world! I had grown use to the slight fuzzy world and blurry words, but now they were clear! I was worried though, because I am a chronic sunglass miss-placer and breaker. I was careful with my glasses like they were made of the most fragile crystal. That lasted about two months. Then it was the grind of daily routine that made me eventually "forget" I had glasses at all. They became second nature to me. The frames practically disappeared in my vision and I became absent minded about their presence on my face.
Before I wore glasses, I would see others wearing them and see the smudges, dirt, and fingerprints on their lenses. Often I would ask if they could not see the this, and many times I was told they in fact didn't even notice. Pre-glasses, I couldn't imagine that! Then I experienced it for myself. I would wear my glasses throughout the day and take them off at night, and only then, away from my face, would I see the smudges, dirt, and fingerprints that surely had been impeding my vision in some way. This is in part due to the thalamus, a portion of our brain that processes and filters sensory input [for a scientific study on this phenomenon, read more HERE].
When we become a Christian, whether it is early or later in life, we are given new "eyes" to see the world. Even as a mature Christian, we can often hear a sermon, read a passage of the Bible, or read a book which gives us new vision and insight into God, His world, ourselves, or others, only to later grow indifferent to that sight and begin to unconsciously ignore it. I imagine a spiritual thalamus inside us that starts to filter out the things God may be showing us. We live with dirty, smudged lenses that need to be cleaned.
James Sire, Christian author and teacher, touches on this in an article for christianity.com entitled, 8 Questions Every Worldview Must Answer presents the idea that how we see the world (our lenses) is "a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart." If we desire to see clearly, it must be with a clean heart. Too often we are guilty of receiving the life changing vision of the gospel which allows us to see the world and ourselves as they truly are, only to allow the grime of life to soil it without us even noticing. King David experienced this in his life. He had seen victory after victory as he followed God and obeyed Him. The bible tells us that he was a man after God's own heart, yet it took the prophet Nathan confronting David before he confessed the sins committed with Bathsheba.
Psalm 51 gives us an insight into David's "lense cleaning". The very title and opening to the Psalm tells us this: "A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba."David describes this lense cleaning, the cleaning of his heart in verses 7 thru 12:
"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
David required a cleansing. His spiritual thalamus had taken the truth of his sins and faded them into the background, ignored them, and gave him an unclear view of the world. It took another person, the prophet Nathan, to say "Hey, there's dirt on your lenses!"
A few action steps for us in this lesson - First, find another person who you trust to be honest with you and ask them to be your "smudge checker". This is a person who will say, with love, when you have stepped off the path as a Christian and need to repent. An outside perspective is often more honest than our internal one. Second, confess your sins before God. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and seek out those dark places we are too often afraid to look at ourselves. 1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, "he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." It is challenging and honestly embarrassing at times when we come to our heavenly father and have to admit to ourselves and Him of the things we have done. Take heart! He loves us, and has already forgiven us of all our unrighteousness - we just need a little cleaning up so we can say once again, "I can see clearly now!"
[Article by Pastor Jason, glasses wearer, and occasional smudge maker.]
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