I think I started wearing glasses when I was 11 or 12. When I first got them it was amazing what I could see that I hadn't previously been able to see clearly from a distance. My mother has told me how I exclaimed over things that she took for granted because she was able to see them. She said it made her feel bad that she didn't realize before that time that I needed glasses. That is something that I couldn't fault her on because I never told her that I couldn't see clearly because I didn't realize that I couldn't see clearly. To me not being able to see individual leaves on a tree or clearly being able to see birds or flowers in the distance had become my normal and I didn't realize that it could or should be different. My problem with my vision has always been about distance; as I have always been able to read or do close with without my glasses. In fact, to this day I take my glasses off to read, do computer work, sew or any thing that I do that is within an arm's reach.
Today I headed to church early and decided to stop by this little local coffee shop and have a coffee and a tea cake. As I sat there drinking my coffee and eating my cake I took off my glasses so that I could play "Words with Friends" on my phone and to talk with my family via texting/messaging. It was probably 10 or 15 minutes of sitting there completely absorbed in my electronic communication when I heard the words, "John was the precursor to Christ" and my head jerked up and I kind of saw some figures sitting across the room. Since I did not have my glasses on I could not clearly see them but as I reached for my glasses to see who was speaking about the Bible the Lord spoke to me. He told me that so many times we get caught up in our lives and situations that are close. We allow our focus to be only on those things that affect us directly or that are within arms reach. When we allow our focus to be on only ourselves, our struggles, our pain, our joys and our sorrows, we fail to clearly see the struggles, pain, joys and sorrows of our harvest field. When we do not allow God to open our spiritual eyes we fail to see our co-workers that are hungry for a Savior or our neighbor that is stricken with grief. Without the eyes and heart of Christ we fail to understand or feel burdened to pray for the orphans of the world, or those that are suffering a life of slavery or torment. Without seeing as Jesus sees, we are like the man who had his vision restored but saw men as trees walking (Mark 8:22-25). We must fine tune our vision with the compassionate love of Christ and the boldness of faith and the fervency of knowing the times. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 "Where there is no vision the people perish..." so if we do not get a clear, compassionate vision of our harvest field then those people in that harvest field will be lost.
Let it be your prayer today and every day that God would open your spiritual eyes to see the world as He sees it and that He would give you a clear vision of your harvest field.
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