Pure Light

09.28.14

Luke 11.34-35 34 “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.” – Jesus (ESV)

It sounds to me like Jesus said, it’s not so much what we see but how we see. The eye Jesus spoke of is perspective, understanding, and worldview.

Most all of us see. Most all of us have vision of some kind. Even the physically blind among us see in certain ways. It’s amazing to me what the physically blind see without the use of their eyes! I am convinced in this context that the sight that Jesus spoke of that day was the sum of what makes up the heart, mind, and thoughts within us. That is truly how we see. Even when it is pitch black around us, our minds are still active and at work.

So, it is how we see that’s important. If we see cynically (where yours truly, truly, struggles) we tend to see things: as never enough, or always lacking, or, never getting any better than this. Cynicism is limited in its vision and determines that life will always be lacking in potential to make progress.

If we see optimistically, then there is never a bad day; there is always something to be happy or thankful or hopeful about. If we only see sarcastically then there is always a certain snide-ness about life. Truly, the way we see determines how we live. And, how others live with us; sight encompasses our personality.

So, how then do we live? I think Jesus would have us live simply, honestly, and hopefully. And I think how we live – or how we see – is a choice. Most of life is habitual to a point. (I say that because I believe that for a while we may have habits; but after a while they have us.) And I believe the Lord would have us to be people of truth. Looking at things truthfully will help our vision to be more clear.

Lastly, I think Jesus cautions us not to look at the world the way we would have it to be, but to accept it as the way it is, and work from there. Just because we have light and vision doesn’t mean everyone (or anyone) has the same. My choice is to live with Jesus and have Him help me to see the way He says I ought: “When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light…” St. John echoed: “…if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…”

Father, may Your light be my light. May I listen to the Holy Spirit when He nudges me about my cynicism and sarcasm. May I be forgiving and be forgetting that all of us are broken and fallen and in desperate need of Your presence within us to live out the lives You’ve purposed for us – lives of meaning, and pure light. Help me God! Amen.