On Seeing...

I turned 40 this past May... and most days I don't feel 40. But there are some days I do, bigtime... where the reality of getting older smacks me in the face. Monday was one of those days. I went in for an eye check-up... and I told my doctor that my glasses are one of the biggest irritants of my life! Somehow, I told her, I'd been prescribed glasses that only let me see clearly things that are in the distance... but I have to take them off when I read... which is really irritating to me that when I'm up in front of people at our Sunday gatherings, and before I can read a passage of Scripture, I have to take off the glasses... ugh.

Well, she assured me that it's very normal... for people who are getting older, primarily 40 years and up. DANG!!!! So, because I'm getting older, I'm going through what's called Presbyopia, which is your eyes' way of "getting gray hairs!" But, according to Doc Stone, I'm fortunate because my eyes are a (-2) and my glasses are on the (+) side... which means, I sorta have "built-in bifocals" (very encouraging, Doc!) so I won't have to wear those crazy-looking two-lens type of glasses... ugh.

So, that's the way my life will be: as long as it's close up, I can see fine (my limited lenses). But if it's in the distance, I have to use my glasses (better lenses). And as I was thinking about all this last night, I realized something: we often need "God's lenses" to see things more clearly, don't we? How many times have we asked God to make things clear so that we would know how to move, respond, etc? Because, without eyes of faith (God's lenses), we won't act unless we can see it close up!

Faith gives us the ability to "see" things that are in the distance... it replaces the blinders of unbelief and the dark clouds of doubt. Faith overrides our limited vision, and allows us to "see" what God is doing in a way we never could by ourselves. Faith is really seeing through God's lenses what I'm unable to see on my own! And without faith...

We will NOT accomplish what He's called us to do...
We will NOT move forward...
We will NOT penetrate darkness...
We will NOT impact our communities...
We will NOT show the world the love of Christ...
We will NOT please God, because it is impossible to please God without faith!!

So, when you can't see clearly - when it seems like things just aren't working out... when it seems the vision has dimmed... when it seems like you're in it all alone... when it seems like you're never going to be able to make it... that it's just way too hard...

Put on the lens of faith... to see the unseeable that you could never see on your own... so that God can do the impossible, that He will only do...

...through you.