Clear Vision
Sara Carle / Office Manager, Administrative Assistant to Spiritual Formation, Care, and Missions
I read a quote recently that said, “The devil wants you in your feelings, because if he can keep you in your feelings, he can keep you out of your purpose. He’ll stir up offense, he’ll magnify fear, he’ll push insecurity ... because emotions can cloud vision and cloudy vision delays obedience.”
I’ll be honest. Lately, I’ve been in my feelings … a lot. Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis, maybe it has to do with the fact that my youngest child is graduating high school this year, maybe it’s stress, maybe it’s perimenopause, or all of the above. All I know is, it’s real and it’s hard. Life is hard, even without all of the distractions of the chaos of this world. The devil is working hard to keep each and every one of us distracted from our purpose. Pastor Justin likes to say, “we were created on purpose, for a purpose.” I’m not sure how many of us actually feel like we are. I know that in my heart of hearts that God has a purpose and a plan for me, but some days I feel like I’m still waiting for God to clue me in on what exactly that is. Until then, I wait for Him to show me the next piece of the puzzle.
I recently purchased a new pair of glasses. My old ones had been driving me crazy because the prescription was no longer accurate and some of the coating had begun to peel off the lens. Obnoxious to say the least. When I put on those new glasses, it struck me instantly how poorly I really had been seeing. Cloudy vision, definitely cloudy. Funny thing is, while I knew they were bothering me, I thought that I was still seeing clearly. So often in life, we look at a news story or a situation happening in our lives and we think, why would someone do that? There’s always so much more to the story that we see. Cloudy vision. Our vision is clouded by so many things, our past, our traumas, our beliefs. That’s why we need to always look to the One who has the clear vision, the One who is authoring the whole story, our stories.
In 2 Kings 6: 8-17, God gives a great example of His vision. Elisha and his servant are surrounded by the enemy. Naturally, the servant is afraid for his life. He looks to Elisha for guidance. Elisha is calm, cool and collected. Not sure that I would be, but he says to the servant, “don’t be afraid.” And then he prays. “Open his eyes Lord, so that he may see. God, let him see what you see.” You know what happened? The servant saw that the army surrounding them was surrounded by an even bigger army, God’s army. Clear vision. Wow. What better hope can we have than that? God is fighting for us, He knows our situations, He knows what’s happening in the world around us. While it may seem chaotic or nonsensical to us, God knows the ending. So, “don’t be afraid.” Take comfort in the fact that we have a God who knows us, who loves us and is fighting for us, even when we can’t see it. It’s time to take off our “cloudy vision” and time to put on God’s vision so that we can be ready and prepared for our purpose.