Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Nearsightedness



When I was a boy, I used to ride my bicycle all over the place. A whole group of kids from my neighborhood would range across our end of town and beyond to find adventure and fun. I had a little trouble with my bicycle from time to time, as the leg of my pants would often get caught in the chain. Since I was so small, I usually ended up on the pavement scraped and mad at my “stupid bike”.

One day, I rode a few blocks from my house to the park, all by myself. I had a plan, I would turn my legs out from the pedals as they turned in order to avoid the pant-leg pinch. I made it to the park and played, and was riding back home, when I began to think of how awesome my plan was working! I looked down to watch how I was able to avoid the grasp of the bike chain, and I watched in amazement until I slammed into the back of a parked car!

Peter talks about building the wall of Christian character, maturing in the faith by increasing in knowledge, virtue, self-control, steadfastness, brotherly love, and more (2 Peter 1:5-8). He says that if those qualities are present and increasing in our lives we will avoid being ineffective and unfruitful in our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Conversely, he says if we lack these qualities, it’s like we are so near-sighted that we are blind.

Spiritually speaking, when we get our eyes focused on the temporary matters of this passing world instead of the weightier matters of eternity, when we allow fear and doubt to rule in our minds, when we have our heads turned to mourn the sorrows of the past so that we cannot see the beauty that lies before us, we are functionally near sighted or even blind to the blessings God wants to bring to our lives. We become convinced that the demands of the here and now are all there is to think about, and we forget that God is calling shaping us for a much bigger purpose than we can even imagine.

Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and faithfully press on toward the goal of His high calling.



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