Body Part: Eyes

I got to speak this last weekend at Oasis (my church in Madrid), and here is what I said:
The series we’re doing is Body Parts and this week’s body parts are the eyes. Romans 6:13 says to “present our bodies as instruments of righteousness” to God so tonight I’m going to be talking about using our eyes to God’s glory. Now, glorifying God with our eyes can be described in a lot of different ways- what we should look at, what we shouldn’t look at, who we should pay special attention too… and Jesus talked a lot about what our eyes should and shouldn’t be doing when he was on earth, so when I was faced with the subject of eyes I didn’t really know where to start. Then I heard the song we just sang. “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”
As Christians, we seem to develop these cute little happy sayings that we say to each other when we’re feeling sad or a situation seems hopeless. We say things like, “every cloud has a silver lining,” and “there’s always darkness before the dawn,” or even “Jesus Loves You and the little children.” Now, these things sound nice but a lot of the time we’re left thinking, okay that’s well and good, but what am I supposed to do now??? I know Jesus loves me and I know Jesus loves the little children… but what now??
I don’t want the phrase “turn your eyes upon Jesus” to be just another one of those phrases that comes up and leaves you asking what now!? How do I turn my eyes upon Jesus, Victoria? I can’t see Jesus, can you? (no, I can’t see Jesus either) … I am going to talk tonight about what exactly turning our eyes upon Jesus looks like… but first I want to talk about why this is important.
Someone read Luke 6:39. It says “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they both not fall into a pit?” See, our eyes affect every single thing we do. It’s very, very frustrating not being able to see because all of a sudden we don’t have the whole picture. That’s why, no matter how much it hurts our eyes, in the middle of the night, when we need to get up for something, we turn on the light; because we know there is the potential to hurt much more than just our eyes. And especially in Madrid, we would never, ever just walk out into the street without looking both ways for cars. ** bird slide** Have you ever been really sorry you didn’t check more carefully the bread you just made your sandwich on? You go in to take a nice big bite and you see this green fuzzy thing taking over the bread… ** Mold slide** Most people try very hard to get the whole picture before they do almost anything, (driving, eating, walking…) Now, watch this clip of what happens when we can only see part of what’s going on. MOVIE CLIP #1- CHUNK… Chunk in this clip meant well, he was going to turn in the bad guys- the Fratelli’s- and he ended up getting caught by them because he couldn’t see in the dark. Like Chunk, most people are walking around half blind with only a small glimpse of the big picture- and they end up making huge mistakes because of this.
Let me explain further by asking another question and I promise we’ll get back to this big picture idea and falling into a pit and turning your eyes on Jesus.

Did you ever wonder why Jesus, while he was on Earth, prayed? I mean, He is God! Why should he have to pray? He can conjure up anything he wants with his mere words and he never had to ask for forgiveness because He was perfect! It wasn’t even to teach his disciples necessarily- Luke 5:16 says that Jesus “often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” He often went off to pray by himself! Now, I think there we’re various reasons for this but I think one major one sticks out to me. Jesus went to turn his eyes on his Father just as we are to turn our eyes on Him. It’s kind of like the blind man leading the blind man… We’re half blind down here on earth, so we need someone to lead us or we’re going to fall into a pit! Obviously, Jesus is that leader, he’s the one that has the whole picture, he’s the one who can see in the dark, so if Jesus had to go to his father and turn his eyes on his Father, we need to follow our leader and do the same. We need to turn our eyes on Jesus- You see, that was Jesus’ way of getting the big picture. It was his way of seeing the whole story. It was his way of opening both his physical eyes to see what was going on around him and his spiritual eyes to see why these things mattered. Let me say that again, because it is the crux of what I have to say tonight. It was his way of opening both his physical eyes to see what was going on around him, and his spiritual eyes to see why it even mattered. You see- He was immersed in a physical world and he was in a physical body where he couldn’t just look around and see the spiritual like he could when he wasn’t in the flesh!
Once Jesus came to earth, he had the same restrictions that you and I have. We can’t look our Heavenly Father in the face and neither could Jesus. So… through prayer, he turned his eyes on his Father to get the whole story, because He KNEW from before that without seeing everything physical through a spiritual lens, he wouldn’t get the whole story. Just as we wouldn’t walk out into traffic or eat moldy bread, we ought not to just ignore the spiritual significance of things. G.K. Chesterton said “God is like the sun. You cannot look at it, but without it you cannot look at anything else!” What I’m saying is that just as what we see with our eyes affects where we step on the side walk if you know what I’m saying, our spiritual eyes should have just as much significance in the way we react to things and basically, how we behave. We’ve got to walk around with our spiritual eyes open or there is a very big pit we are likely to fall into.
C.S. Lewis talks in depth about this in his book Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer. He warns us not to mistake what we see going on around us as the Ultimate Reality as he calls it, or the big picture- because it is far from it. He uses the example of a dream. A dream is a delusion only so long as we’re dreaming. However, when we wake up- it ceases to be a delusion or a lie or a trick. Because now we are seeing it from the outside perspective that a giant spider really wasn’t about to eat you although five minutes before your whole body was seized with terror as the spider approached. C.S. Lewis also explains this like a play. He says we’re all in a giant play. The world is like a stage set. If you attack a little house with hammers and clubs on a stage, you won’t get pieces of brick and stone like you would in the real world, rather, you would just cut a hole in the canvas. Likewise, we are all characters- covered in stage makeup (which is our bodies), and we’re in the costumes of our professions and our tastes, yet that’s not who we really are! You see, an actor cannot act if he has nothing underneath the character. Actors don’t go home at night still pretending to be doctors or psychos or aliens. They have real people underneath that make the doctor or psycho or alien more interesting and real. C.S. Lewis says, “Now the moment of prayer is for me… the awareness… that this ‘real world’ and ‘real self’ are very far from being rock-bottom realities. I cannot, in the flesh, leave the stage, either to go behind the scenes or to take my seat in the pit; but I can remember that these regions exist. I also remember that my apparent self--- this clown or hero or (English teacher or student or secretary or doctor) - under his grease-paint is a real person with an off-stage life… And in prayer, this real I struggles to speak…”
Turning our eyes on Jesus, which to me is really another word for praying, is exactly this.
What you see with your eye balls is only half the story. II Corinthians 4:18 says, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.” To get the full story, you have to open your spiritual eyes (which is turning your eyes on Jesus) and recognize that there are two worlds at work, the visible physical world, and the invisible spiritual world and we cannot understand this world and therefore act appropriately if we are not seeing the big picture- both the physical and the spiritual. Paul, on his way to Damascus when he was still called Saul, learned this lesson better than anyone else I can describe. We see this story in Acts 9. “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples… As he neared Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied, “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what to do…” Saul got up from the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing.”
Could you imagine??? All of a sudden, Paul walking down the street becomes blind because God says to him, guess what Paul- What you’ve seen with your physical eyes your whole life MEANS NOTHING. IT MEANS NOTHING, PAUL. Unless you know what’s going on spiritually, you’re better off as a blind man! That’s why you didn’t see me before and that’s why you can’t see anything now!
Now, three days later, Paul regained his sight and with that came a complete life change. His whole life changed because of the one moment that his spiritual eyes were opened.
Now most of us didn’t go around killing Christians before we we’re saved. And most of us are here because we know that a God exists and a spiritual world exists. However, I know I sometimes don’t live like I see the whole picture. Imagine if we really lived like God was our Provider and our Protector and our Comfort. Imagine if we took God at his word when he says that with the measure with which we give, that’s what we’ll be given. I’d probably tithe more, I’d definitely share my faith more and I wouldn’t care if people got offended or hated me after.
Allow me to extend the analogy of the play a little bit further. We’re all in a play and we’re all characters but someday that play will end and we’ll walk of stage. I Corinthians 13:12 says “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” Our spiritual eyes will be fully opened. Some of us will be very surprised with what we see then and some of us will go, Oh, that’s what that looks like all cleared up… I’m going to pray and then we’re going to sing Open the Eyes of My Heart and I want you all to think about the situations in your life that seem most despairing to you or disheartening and then look at them again through spiritual eyes. Has God said He’ll be your provider? Then he will. Has he said He knows the things he’s planned for you? Then he does. Has he counted the hairs on your heads? He knows every one.

Thin Lines and Fat Lines

There is a line between everything; the place where hate becomes violence; the place where instruction becomes force; the place where love becomes obsession.. I am really bad at finding lines. Not hate or obsession lines, that's kind of creepy. I'm talking about Biblical lines, the lines that actually matter in my daily life- the line between truth and love, the line between going and making disciples and throwing pearls to swine, the line between Jesus being my righteousness and my righteous acts are as dirty rags. I cannot find the line between sin and freedom nor exercising my liberty and making my brother stumble. Where's the line between sanctification and the humility to know that I cannot make myself sanctified? What about the line between waiting patiently in prayer and laziness? What about apathy and trust? What about faith and wishful thinking? What about knowing the truth and it setting you free and being crushed by a quick glimpse of what you were just freed from? What about entering the kingdom of Heaven as a child and being ready to give an answer to the cynics and the intellectuals and those that are out to prove you look like an idiot and a lemming?
Most people strive for something in life that can be obtained, that can be grasped, whether it be fortune, fame, fancy things or contentment. It is God's will that I be sanctified, so it is the thing I try to obtain, to grasp hold of, yet.. it is the one thing that I know is impossible.

I Come Bearing Syrup

Well, its been a while. Finals were brutal, hence the month or so it's been since I last updated. Christmas at home was great. For some reason, even though I love the people here, I don't think it would feel all Christmassy without my family. This Christmas was fairly uneventful in comparison to previous Christmasses. Can you pluralize Christmas? I don't know. Anyways, last Christmas I drove ten hours in one day to pick up my puking sister. The Christmas before- I don't remember but I remember it wasn't normal. Most of my family holidays are pretty dysfuntional. Christmas is no exception. But this Christmas, at home anyway, was pretty good. I woke up, opened some great presents, watched my mom open the espresso maker I got her (best daughter ever award) and then we made coffee (which I don't drink, but thats no reason to be selfish) and made a really big breakfast and then we ... dont remeber what happened next. it was like two weeks ago. i cant remember that far back.
Now, with two holidays such as Christmas and New Years so close together, the normalacy couldn't last for long. New Years rolled around. For New Years eve I went to chaperone for my church's all nighter- but I only stayed until like one, then I left. When I got home super late, my mom was still up and we watched the World Poker Tour. There are certain things I will always watch if they are on tv. One is the World Poker Tour. The others include, the Iron Chef, M.A.S.H, any sort of pool tourney and the cartoon Recess. I just recently watched a billiards trick-shot tournament. That was great, but I digress. New Years day was dysfuctional in all its glory. My aunt came down from New Jersey. Just let the word New Jersey ring in your heads for a moment. Hopefully none of my avid readers are from New Jersey, but if you are, you'll know even better what I'm talking about and take pride in your specialness. My aunt also has really, really big hair and her life's pursuit right now is winning the lottery. Folks, she even has me convinced that one day, she will win the deluxmultimillionsuperfantastic prize and pay for everything for me forever. Not only is she my aunt, but she is my godmother. So she's obligated by religious law to throw some of that dough my way. And she will because although her hair casts a shadow like a hot air balloon, she is extremely generous and loving to my sister and I. When she got there, my mom made coffee (which my aunt doesn't drink either) because thats all my mom does now. Since the espresso maker, she makes coffee for every occasion. Saturday mail arrives= coffee. clock strikes two= coffee. commercial comes on= coffee time! She makes coffee at like 8 at night too, then can't sleep. But she wont stop because she loves coffee. After my mom made coffee, we went to my grandpa's house with my uncle Joe. Uncle Joe used to be in the army. Uncle joe has his snipers license. Uncle Joe brought a 22 and a German mouzer to the festivities. So I shot guns all afternoon. I'm like a regular Annie Ocle/Okley/Okly (can't spell). I shot the can off the bucket twice. And shot the bucket a lot. I have pretty good aim. After that, we had dinner at my grandpa's heretofore referred to as Pop. It was pretty good and I learned of a superstition the his wife's family has on New Years, which is to make sure a dark haired man walks through the door before anyone else in the New Year. I made some people mad when I was the first to rush in. Hey, I wanted to hug Pop, you people can stick it in your eye. Then, a couple of hours later, we proceded to drive to my grandma's house, heretofore referred to as Nana. Nana's house is about two hours south. So we were driving and whining a lot. But my aunt has to be generous and loving to EVERYONE on all the holidays so we went to her house to. She made dinner, which was really good, as it always is. I'm pretty sure I ate about twelve pounds of food in all. She doesn't seem to realize that I cant eat an entire chicken and thirty potatoes by myself. I just can't do it! I do try, for her sake, every time I go. But I cant. I'm not Andre the Giant, and I'm pretty sure he couldn't either. [enter dysfunction] Uncle Pete lives with Nana. He's a Vietnam vet that used to have quite a drinking problem and one day gave it all up and started planting things and housing bunnies and kitties. Well, he hasn't given up the kitties but he has found himself dipping into the sauce again if you know what I'm saying. So all night he would sit out on the deck playing ridiculously loud country music, coming in every so often to make sure we all loved him and telling us how beautiful we all were. Lots of love and beauty flowing in there.
What felt like forty two hours later, we left. I slept on the way home and all in all it was an interesting beginning to the year 2006. I turn twenty this year. Technically, I have been alive, or at least in existance, for twenty years already. So my birthdays not gonna be that bigadeal.
In closing, I'd like to say a few things to the year 2006: "You're gonna feel shorter than 2005 because every year has that problem, so you're at a bit of a disadvantage. However, that doesn't mean you can't take the cake for best year ever! There's still a chance for you. So here's a little advice for you. Start off good, maintain your goodness and end good. See, we're all winners."