Unshackled Moments ~ May 12 ~ The Right Pair Of Glasses

My eyes don't work well anymore. The glasses I wear these days help, bifocals that correct both distant and near vision. But in the morning when I first wake, even the glasses quite often don't help much. It is no longer a fast process for my eyes to wake up as much as the rest of me and start working. So, sadly, I've grown used to struggling to read first thing in the morning, even with my glasses on, at least for a little while.

But this morning fear crept up within me as the minutes ticked by and my vision did not adjust. It felt like I had woken too blind to read my morning Bible studies and devotionals, and was going to stay that way. I cleaned my glasses a couple of times, but it didn't help. Then before I took them off to clean them a third time, a tilt of my head clued me in on my mistake. My head movement made no change. What I saw through the top of my glasses was the exact same amount of blurred as the bottom. I had grabbed the wrong glasses.

I have two pair of glasses, a pair of no-line bifocals I wear most of the time and a pair of distance prescription only that make driving and watching television easier because I don't have to keep my head at any particular angle in order to keep the farther stuff focused. This morning I took a step in the right direction, but got off track. I knew I couldn't see on my own, so even before giving my eyes time to do what they could I put on my glasses, my helpers. But it didn't help because I grabbed the wrong ones. This actually  made things worse because not only could I not see to read, but I thought I had gotten the help I needed so didn't realize for a while why I still couldn't see.

I think the mistake that I made this morning is easy for us to make spiritually. We come to the understanding that we can't manage on our own, that we need help. But often what we instinctively and automatically reach for to help us, while of the right general nature, is not the truth that makes us free and gives us strength and victory. We need power that comes from outside of us, that is greater than us. The solution is spiritual. but contrary to popular ideology, not just any spirituality will do. It does matter what pair of glasses we grab. Grabbing the wrong pair not only will fail to help us, but it can slow the process down as it takes longer to realize why we still need help. 

Abba, help me to always realize the truth that Jesus is the answer and not grab indiscriminately at  things wrapped in the guise of spirituality. The is a truth that doesn't change, and there is untruth. Let me never be satisfied with untruth, no matter how comfortably it fits. Amen.