August 17, 2013

2 Peter 1:9 — But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Myra had cataract surgery recently. Not everything is perfect yet, but her eyesight is much improved and we thank God every day for it. Musing on that this morning, and some other things we were talking about put in mind thoughts about our spiritual and inter-personal vision.
I am conscious of two weaknesses in my own vision.
Sometimes I am better at “seeing” people nearby than people “afar of”. It is easier for me to see the needs of those before my eyes than to imagine what those out of immediate sight might need.
I am better at seeing what’s on the surface than seeing underneath, and knowing how people are feeling, and what they believe.
I’m pretty sure that the imagination that sees far off and the kind of empathy that sees deep are marks of spiritual maturity. Paul the apostle was great at seeing far off. For example, in Colossians 2:1 we find “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh”. Paul was burning with an intense and continual concern, not only for those he knows in Colosse and Laodicea, but for other Christians in the same area that he had never met. His spiritual imagination could well grasp the the dangers to which they were exposed from Judaizing Christians on the one hand and Pagan philosophers on the other.
Oswald Sanders pointed out that the master of the kind of empathy that sees below the surface was the Master — Jesus Himself. He wrote “The weak and erring, the failures, are often crushed under the callous tread of their fellow men. But the ideal Servant specializes in ministry to those who are generally despised or ignored. No life is so bruised and broken that He will not restore it.” The reference is to Isaiah 42:3, a beautifully comforting verse, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”
How far does Jesus see? How deep does He look? What is the range that the disciple should send his imagination to roam in? Perhaps for scope we can look at these beautiful verses from Ephesians 3:

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

There is no limit. I’ve talked before about practicing imagining the circumstances of people I meet. This devotion has set me another task. I’m going to set some time aside regularly to think about those far off, and about what those closer to me might be dealing with. If like me you feel you might be afflicted with spiritual shortsightedness, perhaps you might do the same.