Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?” John 9:40
Today I find myself relating to Theodore Roosevelt. During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt helped lead the Rough Riders into Cuba. I learned that he made it to shore with a raincoat, a toothbrush, and a dozen pairs of glasses. It’s those glasses that got me! The reason I’m even thinking about them is because there is something on my lenses making me a little bonkers. I clean them at night, but it looks like I’ll have to do it a little earlier today.
If we play the game where you ask me to choose only a few things to take to a deserted island, then I might have to follow Roosevelt’s lead to make sure I have my glasses. I only see blobs without them, and I sure do like my crisp, clear vision. I don’t even keep a clock on my nightstand because I can’t see it anyway unless I put my glasses on. The boys know not to ask me to look at something if I don’t have them on, because unless I’m a few inches from it, forget it! I’m like that lady in the Sears Optical commercial that mistakes a raccoon for her cat!
The smudges on my glasses not only affect the way I see, they alter my attention too. My focus is on the wrong thing. Hmm…could this be what happens to us when we don’t keep up a regular cleaning schedule for our soul? Dirty glasses make us not see clearly, while dirty souls can actually make us spiritually blind!
A soul with smudges is a whole lot harder to see compared to smudges on our glasses. Because of that, we might not even notice the build-up until it’s really bad. Could this be what happened to the Pharisees? They couldn’t believe that anyone would consider them spiritually blind, but soul smudges are hard to see in ourselves.
I learned that smudges on my glasses are often from my own making. Yet, I know that if I try to clean them without the help of the cleaner, I’ll just make them worse by smearing them. I also know that if I try to deal with the smudges on my soul without the help of God, I’ll just make a mess.
Let’s not only get rid of the smudges, but replace them with things that come from God. Here’s a list from biblestudyplanet.com that I thought was great:
- Clean out Pride and replace it with Humility.
- Clean out Anger and replace it with Self-control.
- Clean out Unbelief and replace it with Faith.
- Clean out Revenge, and replace it with Forgiveness.
- Clean out Complaining and replace it with Praise.
- Clean out Wicked Thoughts and replace them with Pure Thoughts.
- Clean out Gossip and replace it with Encouragement.
I challenge you to pray about this today. Ask if there’s anything that’s distorting your vision due to smudges.
