Making our eyes healthy requires more than carrots - May 13

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 72; PM Psalm 119:73-96; Lev. 19:1-18; 1 Thess. 5:12-28; Matt. 6:19-24

I have a group that reads books together on Tuesdays.  Last month we spent our days diving into The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.  The premise of the book was learning how to find joy in our life, especially when faced with great adversity, pain, and suffering.  It couldn’t have been better timing for us as a group to read their thoughts as our lives were all becoming more difficult in so many ways. 

One of the key concepts that was presented was the idea of reframing.  To find joy in our lives, we have to learn how to see each situation differently.  One the examples suggested was when you feel envious of your neighbor’s mansion or fancy home, maybe say to yourself, “I am so grateful that I don’t need to clean five bathrooms or mow that giant lawn.” When we can learn to cast a different light on a situation, we can learn to see it from different angles which can then lead to us seeing what we can be grateful for and how we can be satisfied. This is a necessary approach for finding joy when situations become difficult and challenging.

Maybe that is why I am drawn to this passage in Matthew (6:22-23) where Jesus uses the image of a lamp to describe an eye.  If your eye is healthy, the whole body is full of light, and if it is unhealthy, the body is full of darkness.  Jesus could be suggesting that our view of the world and ourselves is dependent on our ability to reframe a situation.  What we see, and how we see it, changes the very nature of how we exist in this world.  It is probably worthy of considerable exploration of what makes our eyes healthy or not, but through my faith, I have come to believe that the core component to living faithfully is to know that we are unconditionally loved by God.  And if we accept this truth, we can extend the same truth to all other people by virtue of being children of God. If we know this truth, we can learn to be who God has called us to be in the face of that which stands against us.  It is about being healthy. Making our eyes healthy requires more than carrots.

What do you need for your eyes to be healthy, to let light shine in your life?  Are their practices or disciplines you can adopt that will allow your whole being to be filled with light?  Or are their things that you need to let go of, or stop doing in order to let the light shine through?

- John+

 Questions for Self-Reflection?

  • What have you lost in the last 3 months?  What has challenged you most?  What have you given up that you are most grateful for? 

Daily Challenge

  • Pick one event that you feel especially challenged by and practice reframing it.  Name what you are grateful for in the midst of this challenge?

John Burruss