Refocus
The human eye is amazing. Think about it - the speed, lighting, movement, colors, and the focus. I don’t know enough about the eye or cameras to give you some type of amazing lesson on their complexities. I don’t know how they work; I just receive the benefit of them.
Let’s for a moment draw a parallel between these things that the eye does for us and how we process our journey with God. Paul draws a parallel in:
16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
“Eyes of your hearts” is of course referring to seeing things that are not seen by my human eyes but seeing through the spirit.
Jesus says throughout his teachings “eyes to see and ears to hear”. Don’t those people already have eyes? Of course, Jesus is referring to a spiritual sight.
My physical eyes are constantly adjusting and evolving to the surrounding environment. Sure, they can fatigue with age and disease or injury can limit these adjustments and abilities. But, remember when you first learned how to cross your eyes and someone said “Don’t do that, your eyes will get stuck like that”? That’s not true! Eyes don’t get stuck!
So follow the parallel: your spiritual eyes aren’t supposed to get stuck. We are to be constantly focusing and refocusing, dealing with light and dark, moving and adjusting to the surrounding environment.
In this season, I feel that I am in a constant state of refocus and I have loved every minute. For my entire life, I have grown up in church. I have spent years serving, worshiping, giving, and constructing this world view that revolves around my perspective of church.
I will forever be grateful for the Lord’s work in my life in 2018 because I have come to the point of deconstructing all the things that make up this world view and putting them under the Biblical microscope. These micro-level interactions with the Spirit of God have been filled with joy and gratitude for my upbringing and the places the Lord has called me to. But they have also been filled with weeping and asking forgiveness in the places that I have “crossed my eyes” and they got stuck.
Other than my justification and adoption, everything else in my spiritual life must constantly be in a state of evaluation - or another way to put it:
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
“Working out” our salvation is the process of focusing. When I focus, I am rending away the things that need not to be focused on. Or, in this season for me, it has been a re-focusing. I have been going back to things that I thought where in clear view but now seem to need a greater focusing so that “the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”
You see, there is something about us that likes attacking the idea of “traditions in the church”. In those moments, though, we often fail to see the traditions that we personally have elevated above the commands to the church. Commands to the church include:
Love God
Pray
Communion
Love one another
Baptism
Make disciples
Sing to the Lord
Walk in the Spirit
Test the Spirit
Operate in your gifts
Teach
Be generous
and many more! I have come to see (and ultimately shared with our Selah family) that these all are step one and all the other things are traditions and ultimately step two. We might end up at step two and three, but let’s be really good at step one before we move to add anything.
It seems to me that the things we add are traditions. They are not necessarily wrong, but we tend to get stuck there. Things like:
How we do communion
Formal Church membership
When we meet
Discipleship classes or Sunday school
Worship style
Programs in the church
Age-based ministries
where we meet
10% tithe
Excellent professional services
You see it? When we elevate these traditions above the commands, we get a cross-eyed vision. The issue here is that our spiritual eyes CAN get stuck. The way to prevent this, as I am learning, is to constantly be in the state of refocusing through the Jesus lens. What did He say and what are His commands? That must be my focus.