The Eyes of our Heart

Focus. Its a hard thing to master spiritually.

We use our eyes everyday to view the incredible world around us. Life would be nothing without vision! Imagine a world without sight. Not just you, but not one being on this earth had sight. We could not get anywhere! Color would be meaningless! Even more so, touch and texture would be meaningless because we cannot see what we are feeling! Hearing would be meaningless for we would not know from where or what the sound has come from! Taste and smell are similarly affected without vision. Our eyes have three different areas of focus, and similarly, our spiritual lives should have different levels of focus as well!

The periphery. This is the part of your eyes that can see movement and color change, but not distinct shape nor distance. Our periphery alerts us to sudden changes near us that our brain needs us to be aware of. When driving, it is super important to watch the peripheral vision because car crashes are lethal. Spiritually, our peripheral should be the world. We should watch its changes and fluctuations, but it need not occupy all our attention. It helps us know how to better serve our world, and how to most effectively be Christ to those who don't know Him! Before cell phones were around, a lot of ministry was done face-to-face in evangelistic outreach. Now, however, because of emerging technology we can simply text each other, post blogs, and even video chat. Since people are more inclined to text than come to church with me, I can use texting as a way to glorify Jesus! The world has changed, and I have adapted because I watched the periphery. Although the gospel does not change, its medium (what it is presented through) can change. And we need to know how to most effectively share our faith with others!

The next level of focus is the central focus. This part of our vision provides most of the information our brains operate on. It cues us in on distance, distinct shape, as well as color and motion. Our eyes are actually useless without the other; by taking the two pictures in our brain and merging them, the slight differences are adjusted for and it actually tells the brain how far away something is!! It takes complex math equations for a computer to do the same. With one eye, we could not determine distance of objects... catching would become impossible. Our central focus should be centered on ministry. How can we serve the Body of Christ, provide for the poor, etc. Our commision from Jesus, ways we can glorify Him, things like that. Our spiritual central focus helps us see how we can grow and serve!

And finally, we come to foveal vision. The foveal accounts for about 3% of our vision. A field so small is used for intense focus, like reading a sign as you drive down the highway. Reading a book, looking at a star, any fixed point your eyes center on is using foveal vision! Our eye's lenses will automatically focus and adjust so that whatever we may be looking at, no matter how far away, is in sharp focus. And our spiritual eye's fovea should be focused on Jesus. His is our Light, and makes the path before us clear. In fact, He makes our paths straight, so if we focus on Him solely, using our foveal vision, we CANNOT stray from Him!! We will walk straight towards Him!! It is when we look away and focus on things other than our God that we fail Him. Just like Peter on the water, we need to focus on Jesus lest the waves overcome. 

Now, before we can serve God, we first need to see. We are born blind, and He must open our eyes before any of this can be utilized! Also, we all have imperfect vision, seeing as we have all fallen short of God's glory! This is why we need the equivalent of glasses: the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our sight and our guide. Without it, even if we had Jesus, we would flounder around because nothing would be clear! Through the Spirit comes enlightening wisdom, which vastly improves our eyesight. Through the Spirit comes the understanding of God's love; not that it is fathomable, but that it is always there waiting for us! Through the Spirit we find peace amidst the chaos for we know our final destination: God's arms. All of these things clear up our vision vastly!

"Love like I'm not scared,
give when it's not fair!
Live life for another,
take time for a brother!
Fight for the weak ones,
speak up for freedom!
Find faith in the battle,
stand tall, and above it all,
fix my eyes on You." - for KING & COUNTRY

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus today so that we may live it like Him!