You May Need To Get Your Eyes Checked!!!

 

When I was growing up it always seemed to me that around our house, nearly every physical problem that arose always seemed to be summed up with the statement,

“Well, we just need to go get your eyes checked.”

It really did not matter what the situation was, the bottom line diagnosis across the board was an eye exam.

“But mom, the car rolled over my foot!!!” or “But he fell out of a tree!!!” the answer was the same. “Well, we just need to go get your eyes checked.”

 Please understand that what I heard my parents say as a kid and what they actually said were two different things. It seemed to me as if that was always the “thing to do”.

 

I always fought getting my eyes checked because I just knew that if I had ever went to the eye doctor I would leave there with a pair of six inch thick lenses.

 

 I would argue with her that an eye doctor was similar to an oil change station. “Mom, you can never go into an oil change place without them printing up a list of everything that was minutes away from breaking down on your car. They are there to sell hoses, clamps, and gaskets. An eye doctor is there to sell glasses. There in no one who ever just walked in and walked out with a cleared chart. They will find something wrong.”

 I was a kid. Kid’s reasoning can stay with us as adult because kids grow up to be adults. Just because a person grows in age, it does not mean that their understanding in certain areas will mature. I think the thing that always rattled me the most about the eye doctor’s office would be the machines they had.

 Psalms thirteen plays out very much like a patient’s visit to the eye doctor’s office.

 King David had eye trouble. He was sitting in The Eye Doctor’s office and He was asking God to help him with his vision.  

 “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?” ~Psalms 13:1-2

David is struggling to resolve some issues in his life and he felt completely overwhelmed. David was a man after God’s own heart because David was after God’s heart. He was consumed with discovering God’s heart.

 

Isn't it funny how fast things that seemed clear at one time can get blurry?

 

He is bringing his frustrations to God and as he fills the chart he then asks something very intriguing of Him.

 

“Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;” ~Psalms 13:3

 

He asks The Doctor to enlighten his eyes. The word “Enlighten” means to “illuminate”. The Illuminate means to: 1) See clearly. 2) make free from prejudices.

 He asks God to help him see something that he was missing. To correct his vision.

 Like an ophthalmologist would use a Bio-Meter.  Help me look through your lenses until I am able to see the proper view of the circumstances that surround me.

 

Almost as if an optometrist would ask their patients as they try different settings on the Phoropter that they are looking through, “Can you see better now? No? Alright, then how is this?”

Continuing to adjust through the settings until the patient is able to see clearly.

 “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.”

                                                                                                             ~Psalms 13:5

 Notice what setting corrects David’s vision.

 

 

MEDITATE ON GOD’S MERCY IN YOUR LIFE.

 Meditating means to think about in great detail. Think for a minute about the Mercy that God extended to you in your life when He reached down into your life through the offering of His son Jesus.

 

“The greatest problem we have is not our circumstance. The greatest problem that we have is thinking that our circumstance somehow negates God’s purpose in our life.”

 Romans 8:28 tells me that God works ALL things for my good even if I cannot seem to see it at the time that I am going through it.

 The first setting toward identifying corrective vision is to meditate on God’s mercy. David then goes on to another setting.

 

 

MEDITATE ON GOD’S SALVATION.

 I can just see David’s face after the “Salvation lens” clicks into place. His entire focus has now shifted from his troubles to entirely be able to focus on God. Notice his remarks as he leaves The Doctor’s office.

 “I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” ~Psalms 13:6

 David’s song of woe completely changes into a song of joy!

HE is now able to focus on the things in life that had become blurry to him. God’s love for him and God’s care for the circumstances of his life.

I made an eye chart to help remind myself about God’s presence when I begin to lose focus. I placed it in my work area, because that can be a place where a man’s focus can become “blurry in a hurry”.

It seems as if people just cannot seem to resist taking an eye test when they walk by one of these things. In fact, several people took the time to stop and begin self testing their vision on my homemade sign. They would get to a point and say, “I can’t read any further.”

I would reply, “You need to keep moving closer to the source until you can read the message.”

They would scoot closer and as soon as they got the message of the eye chart they would smile and without fail say, “Thanks, I really needed that today!”

 

We all do, so I decided to post it here for you to take as well, because things can get “blurry in a hurry”, and if we are going to express the indwelling Christ to those around us properly, we need “Corrected Vision.”

 I am sounding like my mother here, but it does not matter what pain and circumstance is going wrong in your life, “You need to get your eyes checked!!!”

 

Climbing with you,

~Dan