It’s Just a Scratch

If you wear glasses, perhaps you’ve experienced the pain of getting a scratch across your line of vision. That happened to me recently. At first I kept thinking it was a hair from my fringe that had gone rogue, because with curly hair you just never know. It has a mind of its own. 

I kept trying to move the hair out of the way, but couldn’t seem to get my hands on it. It was driving me nuts!! When I finally removed my glasses to try and swipe down my entire face, I realized it wan’t a hair at all, but a scratch on my lens. And once I knew it was a scratch, it’s amazing how quickly my eyes adapted and ignored it.

When I finally took time and examined my lenses more closely, I realized there were actually more scratches than I thought. When they were right up against my eye, they all kind of blended together, and looked like one scratch. But when I held them away from my face, and in the light, I could see them clearly. 

Those scratches are a result of me not being careful: setting my glasses down without thinking, dropping them on the floor multiple times, leaving them places they shouldn’t be for others to damage. 

If I want clear vision, I need to take better care of my glasses. Because sure, I can get new lenses, but if my habits don’t change, the new ones will get as scratched up as the old ones. 

Things in my life that blur my vision are usually the result of me being careless: speaking without thinking, justifying myself when I’ve been convicted, letting my mind go places it shouldn’t, leaving my heart unexamined. 

Initially I think it’s something as simple as confessing a single sin, but when I take time to step back and examine my life more closely in the light of the Word, I see it’s usually not just one small thing, but several sins I’ve let slide. And I’ve just learned to ignore the blur in my spiritual vision. I’ve adapted instead of fixing it. 

I want to see clearly! I don’t want to live a careless life. I don’t want to adapt to the things I’ve let blur my vision. I don’t want to keep getting new glasses and having the same issue. 

Lord help me to examine my vision and fix the scratches I’ve let build up. Help me to adopt good habits so I take better care of my spiritual glasses.

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
(24) And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 119:15-18 
(15) I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
(16) I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
(17) GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
(18) Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.