The right focus

I’ve learned an important lesson today – its not good to go through life without the right focus. While this might be the simplistic kinda message we get from self help guru’s, pop psychiatrists, and brief “The more you know” commercials from the Ad Council, it is pretty important and not to be taken for granted.
Today, getting anew pair of glasses and I felt like a new born. Everything looked brighter, closer and more vivid. Having gone without them for the better part of a year I had forgotten about how…well. Alive the world really looked. I felt bad about what I missed out on without these glasses; having only worn them when I would borrow my suitemate’s glasses to drive somewhere. Even then, I did not really take time to notice the world around me, I just got in the car and went, using the glasses just to keep me legal.
After taking a walk outside with them on, my first thought was the fact that I had really been missing out on the beauty of God’s creation, an in part, that had been partially contributing to my boredom with this world and life. Paul makes a similar claim in his epistles, especially as one who had been blinded by God for a period of time and then made to see again. That experience changed Paul profoundly and it would be too short to say that he had seen things in a new light ever since he was blinded by a heavenly one.
Another observation about getting “in-focus” so to speak is the fact that it changes one’s self perception. Looking in the mirror with my glasses was indeed a revelation. Of course I know what I look like, but it was stunning to be able to see from arm’s length all my pores, blackheads, sleep in my eyes and even just how chapped my lips really were. All that good stuff. The Apostle Paul talks about seeing - God and each other - "as if through a mirror darkly" while we are on earth, but in time and spiritual growth and by reuniting in heaven, we can come to see each other "face to face." This is one of my favorite passages of scripture not only because it is so poetic, but because it highlights the refreshing truth, clarity, and companionship that is capable. But then again, do we want people to be able to look that closely at us, to examine us, question us? Judge us? Or do we want them to see what we want them to and thus darken the mirror?
Spiritually as well, we often do not perceive ourselves correctly or even as God does. God told Samuel that while man looks at the outside, he looks at the heart. And when we are caught up with the outside, we not only tend to gloss over or even over-emphasize what is really there, but we also tend to miss the heart completely. Just like I spent almost a year not having the most accurate (and humbling) image of my face, I've spent even longer not having a similar revelation about the state of my heart. Like Roy Hession states in his book We Would See Jesus, that as innocent and righteous we would appear to be on a false charge against us, we are guilty of a whole host of other sins and misdeeds that keep us in perpetual need of God's grace and humility before the cross.
As a staunch advocate of checking oneself before wrecking oneself, I know that I am less likely to be cautious or humble when I feel I am solid ground. But when we boast, it should be in our weakness and Christ strength displayed through it. I have weak eyes, I can barely recognize my friends 10 yards away, but I can be proud that Christ gives me the ease with which to make those friends in the first place. You probably wont be seeing my face on Gentleman's Quarterly any time soon either, but thank God for my parents who've raised me to be a Gentleman.
In our day and age, many people are commended for being "down to earth", having their "head on straight" and all sorts of compliments that make it seem that we are a people accustomed to floating off in our delusions of grandeur and putting on the false face we feel makes the best impression - all too true. I pray that we live as the enlightened creatures God has made us to be, in being true and perceiving truth, and not minding when we have to put on some corrective lenses to boot.