20/20 vision in 2020
Only about 35% of adults have 20/20 vision without corrective measures such as glasses. First century Christians with vision problems would have either resigned themselves to the fact that everything was blurry or they would have improvised. Nero, to shield his eyes from the sun, used a polished emerald to watch the gladiators fight. There are other stories of glass fish bowls being used to magnify text in books. I wonder if Paul suffered from bad eyesight and whether his comment about seeing through a glass, darkly (1 Cor 13:12 KJV) was something physical to do with his eyes, as well as something spiritual. Perhaps bad eye sight was the reason he writes with such large letters in Galatians (6:11)!
Once our eyesight begins to deteriorate, remedial action needs to be taken, usually in the form of glasses or surgery. This deterioration often creeps up without us noticing. We begin to hold text further away, squinting in an attempt to adjust our sight. Or we require a reading light when our children appear to be able to read in a state of semi-darkness! Or we finally make the link between those headaches, which have become more frequent, and our inability to read the computer screen.
Paul says we don’t see spiritual things clearly. We will one day, but for the moment Paul says it’s like seeing a reflection in a mirror or squinting in a fog. If this is our situation, would we realise if our already poor spiritual sight had got worse? I suspect not. So whilst we wait for that day when we will see clearly, are there things we can do to stop the deterioration of our spiritual sight?
You might be surprised to read that I am not going to include a long list of things that you need to do. You may already be doing a lot of Christian stuff, which actually might be why it’s so hard to notice a deterioration. We often think that by doing things for God - by serving Him - our spiritual temperature is good. These things, very likely, are things that God has called us to do and we probably should keep at them. However, if we are doing them at the cost of our relationship with God, if we are doing too much doing and not enough being we have got the balance wrong. God calls us to be sons not servants. The answer for poor spiritual sight is simple – spend time as a son or daughter with Father God.
If you need help with that, a visit to Crowhurst in 2020 could be the answer. There is plenty of space and time within our 2020 programme to encounter God. Healing Space is set-aside time, in the stillness of the house, with its rhythm of daily worship, to meet with God. If you would benefit from learning how to hear God better, our three night retreat - Transformational Encounter (formally Healing Weekend 2) - will help you to facilitate a deeper encounter with God and learn useful practices to continue once back at home. Embrace is the theme of our 2020 Quiet Days - an invitation for you to come and press the ‘Holy Pause’ button and embrace God Himself. God offers each of us a rich, abundant and deeper life, even in the midst of challenging times. Topics such as: vulnerability, stillness, doubt, prayer, slowness, the space in-between and mystery will help us discover that abundant life. These are just a selection of events in our programme. The full programme can be viewed here.
We would love to minister to you in 2020 and help you in your quest for 20/20 vision.
This message was added on Tuesday 22nd October 2019