Clear Vision

The other day as our family was headed down the interstate to our next service I began to hear a yelp and scream from the back of the truck. When Jessica looked in the back seat she realized that the screaming was coming from our youngest son, Gentry. Gentry's face was bright red and tears were streaming down his face. As any eight month old child would respond, you could easily tell that something was really irritating him. We noticed that what was causing the blurred vision, the red face, and the huge crocodile tears was none other than a small eyelash that had somehow worked its way into his eyes and was irritating it. In that moment he could not do anything but respond to this irritant in his life.

I have traveled the country and been in a lot of different church environments and I have come to understand the wisdom found in the passage of scripture which says .... without a vision the people parish. Just as my eight month old son quickly discovered that the smallest things can blur vision, I have found that in the church it is normally not the big things that derail God's kingdom, but many times it is the small things. One small irritant in the church can derail the whole body's vision. It can produce a lack of focus in the body that will uproot what God has truly called the church to accomplish. It appears that many times we have faith to believe God for the impossible things that stand before us, but it is the things within the realm of everyday life, the small irritants, that we learn to cope with that eventually blur our vision and detour us from the destiny that God has called us to. As a church body we must be careful to protect vision. The skilled craftsman understands that when he is working on creating a beautful sculpture that one of the most important things that he does is where protective glasses. The church must understand that what God has called us to do is to form and transform lives. In this process many times little shards will fly out and potentially blur the vision of God's calling on His body. We need to protect the vision that God has called us to by putting on the whole armor of God. Realize that even the small irritants of life have the potential to blur vision. We must focus ourselves on fulfilling the vision that God has called us to. I am happy to say that when Gentry was able to work the eyelash out of his eye the crying stopped and he was back to normal. We need to allow the water of the Holy Spirit to flush out any irritants in our lives to renew vision and focus to the Church.