Day 2980 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Ephesians 1:18 NIV

When our vision is polluted, our souls are likely corrupted.

Because, though we’ve perhaps never considered it, there exists a time in life wherein we must stop allowing our vision to limit our perception. You read that right. Sometimes what we can see can keep us from seeing what can’t be seen.

But sadly, it seems as if much if not nearly all of life is almost entirely reactionary. We exist within this mindset that has us convinced that our sense of sight is by far the most important as it seems to offer us the most information in a rather immediate and quickly understandable manner. And while that is true, what we see does in fact offer us a host of ready information upon which we usually rely without too much hesitation, the problem is that visual deception is one of the many tools within the arsenal of our enemy.

And this is for very good reason, you see: The devil is going to use us against ourselves. That’s simply good tactic. He is going to seek out our weaknesses and complacencies and normal assumptions and find a way to use them to break in and begin to tear us down. And so, as a society that largely relies rather heavily on sight and visual information, the devil has his way inside. Just make it look good. Make it entertaining. Make is seem ornately beautiful and rapturing to the eye and the door is opened.

This is one of those scary truths that’s either been lost or is in great danger of being altogether forgotten. We usually just sort of coast through life not paying all that much attention to what’s going on. We simply hold to this assumption that seeing is believing, and as such, our faith eventually rests upon only that which can be seen. Not that we don’t have hopes in the invisible, we just find more comfort in the assurance of something we can prove is real.

Well, sadly, the joke is most certainly on us in this instance. What we’re realizing, or at least I hope we’re realizing, is that not everything is as it seems. Not every visual cue points to something which is true. Not everything we see is something worth seeing. How about that? Not everything we see is something worth seeing. Sadly, we’ve been diluted into assuming otherwise. Again, we lean so heavily upon our eyes that our eyes become our hearts and our hearts just sort of tag along for the ride.

And while that seems to pose no immediate danger or risk, the long-term effects are a kind of horror we’d likely not like to consider nor contemplate. Following our eyes has led us to a symphony of really foolish mistakes. We’ve believed things that weren’t true just because they looked genuine. We’ve trusted in people who ended up being nothing but actors performing behind masks. We’ve followed paths that seemed brightly lit only to discover that their lights were only leading us into a neon hell where we lost our sense of responsibility.

What’s sad is that we keep doing it. We look around. We look to the world. We look to others to tell us what is important, what is real, what is filled with meaning and purpose and what is void of such. We just keep letting our eyes lead the way, and our hearts just keeping being dragged kicking and screaming for the floor. Our conscience is continually overwhelmed by the sights we wish to see, and as such, our hearts have no say in the choices we make.

We just judge everything by appearances and fail utterly to gauge the intrinsic.

If only we could see past the range of our vision. If only we could perceive that which needs more than sight. If only we could close our eyes, open our hearts and learn to live by a far deeper perspective than simply what we witness before us. We just might realize how blind we’ve really been all this time living by only what we see.

As we discussed yesterday, perception and perspective cannot define reality. They only distort it or distract us to it in such a way that we live a lie convinced that it’s genuine simply because our eyes tell us so.

Problem is that our eyes are still convinced that worth is defined by a piece of paper with a slightly greenish hue. They tell us that truth is based merely on tangible evidence. They remind us that we can only move forward when we can see clearly the path laid ahead. Yes, our eyes do all they can to tell us what life is, and for the most part, we simply agree because if it’s there to be seen then it must be safe to lean upon.

But can we not realize the shallow nature of visual information? Just because we can see it doesn’t mean that we can hold it. Just because it catches our eye doesn’t mean it’s worth earning our devotion. Just because something can be witnessed does not mean we should follow it. Because what is seen does not always fit, or least shouldn’t be allowed to fit within our hearts. Unfortunately, this is very much the normal way of life undertaken and settled for in this place.

Yet, if sight is of such value that it must entirely supersede all other sense and story, then tell me, what does love look like? What color is truth? How big is humility compared to the skyscrapers which pierce the clouds so high above? Can compassion be measured with mile markers? Does grace have a face that can be painted? Is mercy able to be photographed? Unfold a map and please point to the place where Heaven is to be found.

And if you’d be so kind, please bring forth the person who most closely resembles Christ.

Can’t be done. None of the above can be satisfied no matter the attempts or proffered evidence accumulated to try. Because God doesn’t see life through our eyes. And we’ve forgotten how to strive to see more than what our eyes can. And within the middle where that break has broken, we’ve found a hollow way of life founded entirely upon a singular sense without any concern for what sense any of it makes to lean upon only one attribute provided by our Creator.

At what point will we shelve this idea that seeing is far and above most important? Hopefully, that point arrives quickly because our biggest hopes mustn’t be relegated to only that which we can see within this world. The fact that it has been for all these years ought to ignite a fire inside that compels us to charge the unknowns hidden within the fog of faith through which we cannot yet see. Knowing how wrong we’ve gotten so many things leaning so heavily on our sight should help us see that we need more than what is seen.

Are we willing to go there, though? Are we bold enough to walk by faith and not by sight? Are we truly going to build our hopes on eternity’s inability to be perceived? Will we follow Christ into the desert away from all we’ve known toward a home we can’t find?

You see, He calls us into a place where sight won’t cut it. He offers us a gift we can’t visualize. He came to this earth to bring forgiveness and salvation, and no human eye has caught sight of a worthy replica made of eye-pleasing material that we can offer as evidence of such extraordinary grace. So why do we keep limiting ourselves to only what we can see? Why do our eyes hold their sovereignty over matters reserved for the heart and soul? And again, most importantly, when will we let it go?

Just as Paul posits here in his letter to the church in Ephesus, our prayer should be that the eyes of our hearts be opened as only with our hearts can we perceive such things as mercy and grace and forgiveness and the kind of love that would die to offer them to a people wholly unworthy of them. Only with our hearts can we contend in this battle against the spiritual forces of evil entering our lives through our eyes. Only with our hearts can offer Christ a place to reside from where He can lead us to the home we’ve never seen.

Only with souls surrendered to the King can we possibly hope in a salvation that sits not upon a storeroom shelf nor hanging upon a hanger in a clothing boutique nor has ever been photographed even with the cameras we have now which can discern down to the depths of molecules.

Our eyes cannot lead us where we’ve never been before. Heaven isn’t a place we can find following some map or a messy set of direction scratched upon a piece of paper. Christ’s compassionate invitation into that eternal peace is only found when we’re lost, lost beyond what our eyes know, lost within the courage to press ahead not knowing the way, lost to all things which have held us back by trying to prove that they mattered.

Yesterday we talked about all the things we’ve offered up as evidence that we’re here and that we matter, and most of them are nothing but worldly materials and socially agreed upon standards of worth. We’ve crafted so many lies in order to try and give ourselves an image that others will agree is worth seeing, and as such, we’ve lived entirely apart from the reality from which we fled and toward which we’re now called to return.

God isn’t looking for us to prove to Him that we’re something better than what it seems. He isn’t looking for us to offer up tiny tokens and trinkets of extrapolated currency based on the common currency of the times. Social media followers and little green dollars hold no real worth. What brands we own and which logos we like don’t have the worth to give us an identity. A bunch of paint and a powerful platform do not make us more important or more beautiful than those without the means to buy them.

It’s all just a mass of visual missteps taken down the common road of proving ourselves to those who also assume what they see to be the full story. And we can paint ourselves up real nice and wear sleek clothing and bear all the popular brands and follow all the maps handed us by a world expecting we agree to follow the direction we’ve been given. But all that all of that will ever do is keep us leaning on our sight while our hearts are dragged along behind the wheel being driven by a world that can’t see beyond what the eyes says.

Friends, my whole point is that God made us for more than what we’ve lived for. All this worldly definition of wealth and riches is based only on temporary power and a vain interest in the standards of beauty as agreed upon by whomever is piloting this wreck into the depths of immense depravity. How much longer can we agree to live by what everyone else is doing, saying, showing? How much longer can we hold to this assumption that there’s not more going on than what we can see?

Our true worth isn’t contained in what we have to show others that demand proof of our value. Our hope can’t be, or at least shouldn’t be based on things that can be held. Our love isn’t shown nor shared because of the size of something we hand out. And if our joy is only for the assumption of a life filled with all these idols everyone else is serving, then we are truly of all people most to be pitied. Because we should know better than to let our eyes lead the way. We should know better than to stymie our hope on such shallow things as trinkets and toys and other time-wasting trivialities.

Folks, if only we could agree to get our eyes out of the way, our hearts may finally be able to see the path we’ve been called to follow by the One too bright to look upon. It’s not what we have that makes us special but what’s been done for us in spite of our efforts to define ourselves based only on things we can see. Christ’s love isn’t deepened if we manage to make the world think we look better. And His salvation isn’t increased if we offer Him a bunch of worldly idols we’ve learned to think are important.

We have to get as much out of our way as possible, because we already can’t see the way. We definitely don’t need to let our eyes and our tendency to follow them toward distractions cause us to miss the Way. We’ve been called into hope, into love, into peace, into forgiveness, into Heaven by way of the cross bore by the One who chose us when we wouldn’t have. We didn’t see, can’t see any of it. But if we can’t feel it, then our demand for visual proof is the reason we’ll end up missing it forever.

Bottom line is that our eyes can’t get us to places we can’t see. But our hearts, once revived in Christ and eternally surrendered to Him, can help guide us toward this promise of a home that’s not found on any map as they learn to follow Him rather than what our eyes keep trying to tell us. He doesn’t need us to see the way home. Just needs us to trust that He knows where He’s going.

Friends, we’ve not been called to a life spent on things that look really nice or just nice enough to bring us some sense of comfort. We’ve been called into the family of God as sons and daughters redeemed and adopted. But it’s only with our hearts that we can perceive a love such as that. If we keep looking for it, we will fail to find it because it doesn’t need to be found. Just need to be accepted. And we don’t need eyes to do that.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold