When out for my early morning walk today, I realised after a while that I had spent all the time with my eyes focused on where my feet were treading. I did look at the scenery as well, and greeted a few people, but for some time did not pay any attention to the beautiful blue sky above. It occurred to me that in limiting my field of vision, I was behaving like a horse that had been fitted with blinkers. These devices are designed to force the animal to focus only on what is directly in front of them.
Concentration
It is only sensible for us to have our eyes on the ground as we are walking, but in doing this, we will be missing out on that which is above and will also experience a limited view of our world; a shrunken frame of reference focused almost entirely upon the immediate. We are engaged in such focused and limited concentration most of the time, and for good reason. We need to concentrate on what is before us, whether a task, a conversation or a tricky problem; such focused attention is required. But surely we also need to take time to release ourselves from ‘doing’ and permit time for just being. We need to allow opportunity for our minds to wander, for us to look beyond the immediate, and to allow ourselves to embrace a broader perspective.
Investment
Many people are so bound up in the immediate, or those things that they struggle with, to open their hearts and minds for the ‘other’. This might be the majesty of the creation, the miracle of a flower, or, yes, the beauty and vastness of the sky above. Our lives need to be viewed in perspective, which is helped by our looking beyond the immediate, whether our current surroundings or our circumstances. Even though those immediate things may feel overwhelming, there is true benefit in taking a step back and broadening our horizons, deliberately affording ourselves the opportunity to breathe deeply and reflect. It may be that when we do this, our circumstances won’t feel so burdensome or overwhelming. Making time to reflect isn’t time wasted but rather time invested well.
Defence
It may be that for some people, focusing on the immediate is a defence mechanism, shutting out consideration of who we are, what our place is in the grand scheme of things, and the perennial question of eternity. Jean and I used to know someone who studiously avoided any consideration of death, whether their own or other people’s – death was too difficult to contemplate. But such avoidance is surely rather ostrich-like, putting off the inevitable, and thereby failing to make any provision for when it has to be faced.
As Christians, we want others to consider such things; to contemplate eternity and their place in this, because that may open their minds to hearing and considering the gospel message.
Listening
That said, we too need to have open minds – open to the Spirit of God to speak to us in whatever way he will. He may want us to confront something that has bound us; maybe a fear or an emotional wounding that has dogged us for far too long. Maybe he wants to reassure us of our place in his plans and his kingdom.
Occasionally, we might be called aside by God to do some business with him; maybe he wants to redirect us, to commission us or to challenge us to honour him more in our lives. Broadening our gaze from the immediate and opening ourselves to hear what God may want to say can only be a good thing and is, I suggest, a necessary step for every Christian at every juncture in our lives. Yes, we must stand on what God has revealed to us in the past, but we need also to be listening to him now, today. Let’s lift our eyes from the path ahead and allow ourselves to gaze at the heavens with hearts ready to hear God’s gentle whisper, his ‘now’ word for us.
Habits
There are ways in which our vision can be blinkered as Christians. It may be that we follow a particular Christian ‘culture’ that orders our lives, defining how we live and what we do. There are inevitably habits that form around when and how we meet together with other Christians, what we do and don’t do on Sundays, how we order our family lives and what our values are. It would be strange if such things were not in place. But how open are we to change in these areas? Have we set these practices in stone, or are we holding them lightly? It is good, occasionally, to reevaluate such patterns of behaviour, to consider whether there are changes that God would have us make.
Traditions
We can have fixed ideas of how things should be, or how they must be done, that, rather than being derived from Biblical teaching, come from our particular religious ‘tribe’, the Christian denomination that we are aligned with. Every aspect of our lives should, if we are serious about living for God, be based on clear biblical truth and upon the direction of the Holy Spirit rather than church tradition or dogma. As Christians, we belong to Jesus, rather than to this or that church faction. Our first duty is to seek his will and follow his example.
Jesus himself was critical of religious traditions that missed the mark and were creations of men. We might wish to consider that the church is very different to the Jewish hierarchy of New Testament times, but we are all human and susceptible to the weaknesses that are common to mankind. Further, we have an enemy who seeks at every turn to distort and distract. We each must aim to ensure that what we believe and how we behave are based upon sound foundations rather than ‘good ideas’ that men have chosen to propagate.
Blinkered
This post is about being blinkered. As we have seen, there are many ways in which our vision can be blinkered, where we make a deliberate choice to see only what is straight ahead of us. There are certainly times when we need to constrain our perspective, lest we easily become distracted. However, if such constraint becomes our normal state, then we will inevitably be shutting out those aspects of life that provide perspective and enable us to see where we stand; whether in a natural sense or a spiritual one. Let’s be those who take the opportunity to look both upwards and around, so that we can better appreciate the journey that we are on and reevaluate our objectives, especially our spiritual ones.
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) ESV
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