Are You Spiritually Far-Sighted?

It was back in 2005 that I started tapping on my computer screen and yelling at it because it was blurring in and out of focus. I would lean in and sometimes it would appear clearer, I would restart my computer and sometimes it would look better.  “Blink^##(#& monitors,” I would say in hopes that harsh words would make them wise up.  Really, how could two new monitors have gone bad so quickly.  So, obviously, I sold them on eBay and went out and bought some nicer ones, bigger ones, and justified it easily when my wife questioned the expense. When I got them home I couldn’t believe it. Same problem!  What was going on? My wife comes in during one of my fits and makes the statement filled with all wisdom and insight,

“You need to get your eyes checked.”

Sure enough.  It was my eyes.  I have worn reading glass ever since so I can appreciate the details of what is near to me.  In my relatively very young old age I have already suffered the holding of the menu in the restaurant out further and further over time until eventually I asked someone else to hold it so I could read it because, “I forgot my reading glasses.”  More recently I have even decided to try multi-focal contacts which are a mind boggling mix of near and distant prescriptions applied with weird science into your contacts, but I haven’t fallen in love with that yet, at all.

The near-sighted can see what is near, but have a trouble with what is farther away.  The far-sighted only see what is distant with any clarity, and everything close up is blurry and not available to them.  So it is with the spiritually far-sighted.  I am sure someone can make an outstanding observation on spiritual near-seers, but it was the concept of far-sightedness that captured Gary, Mark, Clint and I the other night as we spent time together in the man-cave.

We were speaking of the problems we have when we are always focused on “it.”  ”It” is the magical thing that when it happens we will feel content and satisfied with our journey.  The type A overachiever is especially obsessed with it, but even the type B follower can still be completely captured by the it that may one day come as the result of the right blessing, the right team, or the right timing. My experience with men is that “it” is often a crippling mental problem that has been suffered since childhood during the days when needing to escape, improve, or experience something greater than present circumstance was so needful that it was a seed planted in the heart and eventually grew up to become a tree in the life of the adult.  “It” as we all know is always “over there.”

Over there implies that it is not over here.  The it is never right here to be touched and seen in the near-view but is permanently resident in the distant view.  I will now, without justifying a single thought, or going to much trouble to define these things, state some ideas I have about the pursuit of “it” and the malady we have now tapped as “spiritual far-sightedness.”

1.  It (and I am now going to drop the use of quotes around this word as I think you have the idea) is always way over there partly because it frees us from any real responsibility in the here and now.  After all, it is where I am going, but I am not there yet, and I can’t be held responsible for what it implies, or even what it entails to get there. Fate is at work here, and so don’t make me pay for what fate may not allow.

2.  It, if it were right here, would remind me and everyone else that I have definite and specific responsibilities in it.  As a matter of fact, I could take the credit for it, and enjoy the accolades.  Of course, I would have to take responsibility for its failures as well, but never mind that, it is still way over there and no such responsibilities are anywhere close, just yet.

3.  Concerning how I feel about myself as a spiritually far-sighted person, well, I would have to say that I am just not there yet.  I am in process, but I am not very impressed with myself right now, and so I look constantly away and off to the future to the person I will be someday.

4.  I would also say that I spend a great deal of time outlining my resume to others in order to prove to them that one day I will make it, I will become, I will be recruited, noticed, heralded, and ultimately paid for what I am really worth.  One day.

5.  Concerning how I feel about you as a person.  Wait, who, you…standing right here close to me?  Oh, I almost didn’t see you at all.  I was looking out over the marvelous fields of my future, and I almost stepped right on your…oh, that is your toe.  I am sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I was just so focused on what God has for me next.

6.  And as it relates to others around me, well, those who can dream with me and agree with my vision of the future are welcome to occupy my future speak, but the rest may be left behind so I won’t get too invested.

OK, that is enough with that casual list of insights. Here is a direct one for you dear reader: if God has called you to receive the Kingdom then you better receive it in the right here and now.

God has set us in fields full of people that are ours to love right now, not later.  They are living in the now, loving in the now, struggling in the now, and enjoying in the now.  We must join them.  If we perceive the call of God as a perpetual future call then we perpetually look right past all of those in the now as distractions, and at best, as less than worthy of our full attention.  At worst, we will only see them as stepping stones to the heights to which we are ascending.  Ouch.

So now we pray simple prayers like this:

God, I pray deliverance from spiritual far-sightedness and I cast off the vain pursuit of the “it.”  There is no such thing.  It is a fairy tale for the immature and those who don’t know of the Kingdom.

Dear Lord, I am the it.  I am your dream.  I am the purpose of your love.  I am the recipient of your favor.  I am the apple of your eye, and a son in your family.  I want to live up to the dream you have for me in the right now.  I am the real time action in the movie of your dreams.  All that I once hoped to become, I am now fulfilling completely as I live in Christ and Christ lives in me, right now.

Holy Spirit, open my eyes to see the people around me clearly and in high definition.  I pray to see past their words to their meaning, and deep into their lives so I can love them and serve them right now.  These people you have planted close to me are my eternal responsibility and if you never give me any more, I will still be satisfied to the fullest.  These close to me deserve all of my attention and the sharpest focusing discernment of my spiritual vision.

Friends, and CHURCHthink readers, may we never be those who push people, like hard to read menus in a restuarant, farther and farther away until eventually we ask someone else to hold them so we can find a way to “see them,” but may we be the ones who hold everyone near close to our hearts, and love with great risk and great expectation that what is close to us now is, indeed, the profound lasting treasure of our lives.

Sincerely,

Ben Pasley

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Tags: church, pastoring, people of God, relationship, responsibility, vision

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