Eyesight is very important, as we all know.  Just a few days ago, I had surgery on my eye.  Last year I learned I had cataracts.  They have continued to grow, so this year’s surgery was needed.  I was nervous, but the surgery itself was not bad, and the skilled doctor made sure I was relaxed and comfortable.  I wore a patch on my eye for 24 hours afterward.  When I returned to the doctor’s office to have the patch removed, it was amazing.  I could see so clearly and sharply.  As someone who has worn glasses since I was ten, it felt like a miracle.  When the cataract was removed, a special lens was inserted in my eye that has given me 20/20 vision.  It has been exciting, but now there’s a small problem.  Until the other eye is operated on in a few weeks, due to the disparity in the vision of the eyes, my brain is confused!

When I look through my left eye only, everything is crystal clear.  If I only look through my right eye, things are super fuzzy and blurry, just like before.  Looking with both eyes open, it’s a combination of clear with a hazy blur off to the right.  We removed one lens from my glasses, and even with that, it’s still been challenging to get everything to focus just right. There’s been double vision, and some perceptual issues, that I’m sure will resolve just in time for the next surgery.

It reminds me of when I look at the world and my life through human wisdom — I can see, but I’m not seeing clearly.  I may be focusing on fear, on the temporary things of this world and putting myself first.

When I look at life and my problems through the crystal clear lens of God’s word, through the eyes of faith, He helps me to see those things I need to focus on, things like:

• Being a good and faithful servant
• Being Salt and Light
• Trusting and Obeying
• Faith over Fear
• The eternal unseen realities

This poem by Annie Johnson Flint has some good thoughts about where our focus should be.

I Look Not Back

“I look not back: God knows
The fruitless efforts,
The wasted hours the
Sinning, the regrets;
I leave them all with Him
Who blots the record,
And mercifully forgives,
And then forgets.
I look not forward, God
Sees all the future,
The road that, short or
Long, will lead me home,
And He will face with
Me its every trial,
And bear for me the
Burdens that may come.
I look not around me: then
Would fears assail me,
So wild the tumult of
Earth’s restless seas;
So dark the world, so
Filled with woe and evil,
So vain the hope of
Comfort or of ease.
I look not in; for then am
I most wretched;
Myself has naught on
Which to stay my trust;
Nothing I see save failures
And short-comings,
And weak endeavors
Crumbling into dust.
But I look up—into
The face of Jesus,
For there my heart can
Rest, my fears are stilled.
And there is joy, and love,
And light for darkness,
And perfect peace, and
Every hope fulfilled.”

I want to encourage you to keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Keep your focus on Him and His word. The world around us is growing darker, but we know from the Bible that difficult times will come.  The darker the night, the more our light is needed.  Look up, not back, forward, around or inside!

Corrie Ten Boom summed it up this way, “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.  If you look within, you’ll be depressed.  If you look at God you’ll be at rest.” 

Look up!

Poem from the book “He Giveth More Grace: One Hundred Poems by Annie Johnson Flint”