I just got new glasses. Not a big deal, they look very similar to my old glasses.
It had been a long time since I had an eye exam. My sight was fine, but my glasses were showing their age, so I decided I should go. My left eye was fine and didn’t change during all that time. To my surprise, my right eye had some major problems. I never noticed before, but during the eye exam I started closing one eye at a time. Turns out I have a cataract in that eye. I talked to the doctor about all my options. I could get eye surgery, a very common surgery, or I could let it go until my left eye starts to have a problem.
Now I have been very sensitive about my eyes my whole life. I would prefer to dig a nasty splinter out of my skin with a utility knife rather than put drops in my eye. No surprise, I choose to wait. The doctor did change my prescription in the right eye to make it work slightly better.
A week later when I went back to get my new glasses, I put them on and was kind of freaked out. My depth perception was unusual, and it seemed my brain didn’t know how to process the new input. I closed my bad eye and everything was clear and good. In a few hours things got better as I adjusted to my new glasses.
The new glasses made me think, if glasses could throw off my perspective, what else is distorting my perspective.
I know that Satan tries to influence my world view all the time.
Proverbs 21: 2 says, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart.”
As followers of Jesus Christ, it is important that we follow his teachings and lean not on our own understanding. This is easy to say, but we tend to judge our actions from our perspective. And normally we think we are pretty good, at least when comparing ourselves to someone worse than us.
So how do we rely on Jesus’s perspective and not our own? We need to have a personal relationship with him. Read our Bibles daily and show our love by following His commands and teachings. We also need to encourage each other.
Hebrews 10:24-25 commands us, “… let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Satan is constantly distorting the truth, lying to us, and trying to pull us away from Jesus. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus and we will see even better than if we get new glasses.
Jim Nolt – Executive Board Member
