My New “Corrective Lenses”

Lessons in Vision, Part Two

A couple months ago, the eye-doctor gave me a prescription for glasses. She had actually given me the same prescription at my last visit, 2 years earlier, but I had decided not to get them. That was mainly because, it seemed to me, my vision was just fine. This time though, I considered the doctor’s advice and got the glasses.

Four things the doctor told me that day stuck with me:

1. It was my choice whether or not to get glasses.

2. It would be such a small prescription, that the change would be barely noticeable.

3. She warned me that once I put them on, things might look like they were coming at me faster.

4. She warned me until I got used to them, that I would need to be careful walking while wearing them, especially walking up or down steps.

I’m not too proud to be honest here ~ so, yes, I’ll admit it ~ I actually tripped in the parking lot, as I wore the glasses out of the store!

Wearing those glasses just made my surroundings LOOK different!

* It LOOKED LIKE the ground was higher!

* It LOOKED LIKE I needed to lift my foot higher as I stepped.

* When I was driving home, the street signs LOOKED LIKE someone had redone them in a bolder print.

Obviously though, even though it LOOKED LIKE things had changed, nothing at all had actually changed. Those glasses just allowed me to see things as they really were.

This experience reminded me of a verse I had memorized as a child. First Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see things imperfectly. It is as if we are seeing them in a cloudy mirror. But someday we will see clearly, with perfect clarity. We will see face to face. All that I know now is partial and incomplete. But someday I will know completely, just as God knows me completely.”

Because we live in a fallen, sinful world, we are all in one of 3 places right now:

1. heading into a difficult circumstance

2. in the midst of a difficult circumstance right now

3. just coming out of a difficult circumstance

But, I want to challenge you to check your vision!

Remember how my surroundings LOOKED different, once I put those new glasses on? It was once the glasses were on, that I actually saw things as they really were!

Well, in the same way, our circumstances will look different when we focus our vision on how mighty God is!

* Don’t focus on the impossibilities, instead, focus on His miraculous power!

* Don’t focus on the size of the problem, instead, focus on the size of the problem solver!

* Don’t focus on the doubts that the enemy brings, instead, focus on the promises of our faithful God!

More than once recently I’ve been reminded that we do not get to see the whole picture that God has planned for us! We need to be okay with not knowing. The only way to be okay with it, is to trust Him! That verse in I Corinthians 13 reminds us that one day, we will see clearly, and know, and understand...Meanwhile, brothers and sisters, CHOOSE every day, moment by moment, to trust Him!

Check your vision!