Clearing My Vision

I wear glasses.

Apparently, I have a very oily face, and my glasses inevitably have oily smudges by the end of the day. So my typical routine is to clean my glasses every morning with soap and water.

In all my running around one day, my glasses got really dirty.  I laughed at how smudgy they were at the end of the day.

But the next morning, I ran out the door without making time to clean the lenses.  I skipped through the day adding more smudges to my glasses.  At one point, I tried to clean the lenses with breath and cloth, but that just smeared the smudges.  And away I went.

The next morning, I bolted out the door and was gone most of the day.  When I got home, though I needed to work, I had plenty of time to wash my glasses before leaving the house again.  I’d become accustomed to the view and didn’t think about it.

That night, I realized the smudginess was starting to give me a headache as I tried to view the world through cloudy lenses.  When I took off my glasses and surveyed the lenses, I was shocked to discover how cloudy and smudged and smeared they were. I’d just gotten used to looking at the world through that disjointed filter.

I washed my glasses the next morning,  and the freshness of the view surprised me.  Surprised!  In a few days I’d forgotten what the world looked like through clean lenses.

“They seeing see not”

A few recently read scriptures came to mind:

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

And “they seeing see not” hit me more forcefully, because gaining spiritual sight is very important to me right now.

For whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

Which ultimately leads to this:

For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

I had the tools to receive clear sight but continued to not receive full sight when I didn’t clean my lenses. This visual lesson showed me how I could close my eyes to not see clearly or at all.

One small decision at a time led to cloudy, smudged, smeared vision.

Clearing My Vision

I knew what it took to clear my vision—a quick wash with soap and water.

The steps to clear spiritual vision often seem that easy too, though maybe more difficult to apply consistently—prayer, scripture study, repentance, intentional focus, etc. Those small decisions and habits make a big difference in keeping spiritual lenses clear.

And with clear spiritual lenses, I can seek eternal vision through the One who sees all with perfect clarity.

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

…

True Light of heaven, when vict’ry is won
may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

—Mary Elizabeth Byrne, M.A. (July 2, 1880 – January 19, 1931) was born in Ireland. She translated the Old Irish Hymn, “Bí Thusa ‘mo Shúile,” into English as “Be Thou My Vision” in Ériu (the journal of the School of Irish Learning), in 1905.