Since I have been diagnosed with Glaucoma, one of the tests I have to take often is the Vision Field Test. For those of you who haven’t taken it, I lean forward and look into a little machine and what I see is a white field. Once the test begins, little black dots begin to randomly appear in my field of vision and each time I see one I am supposed to push the button that I have in my hand. Imagine the vision field is like a clock; because of the glaucoma in my right eye, I can’t see the little black dots when they appear in the area from three 3:00-6:00. I can clearly see all the little black dots with my left eye, but not with my right eye.
As I was thinking about some of the news stories this week, especially in regards to the abortion issues in Iowa and New York, I can only think there are many people with spiritual glaucoma. They just can’t seem to see clearly what you and I see. We wonder how they cannot see that ending the life of a baby inside the mother’s womb is murder—how can they not see it?
There certainly seems to be a real form of spiritual glaucoma that is causing people not to be able to see these days. As I was reflecting on this sad reality, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:4, where he wrote, “The god of this age has blinded the mind of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” According to Paul, unbelievers are really blind to the truth.
Now here’s where my analogy breaks down because when Paul writes that Satan “blinded the minds” of unbelievers, Paul is vividly portraying someone who deliberately removed that person’s eyes and permanently blinded them. So it’s not like the person is slowly losing their sight, they actually don’t even have eyes!
And then also notice, Paul didn’t say that Satan blinded their eyes, it says he blinded their mind. And when referring to their mind, Paul is referring to an unbeliever’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs and ability to reason. So Paul is saying Satan has “gouged out” the spiritual eyes of unbelievers to such a degree that they have no ability to see things correctly and therefore it has also impaired their thoughts, feelings, beliefs and ability to reason. As a result, for someone who is spiritually blind, killing an unwanted child seems like the logical thing to do.
Many of the foolish decisions our government officials make creates a deep sense of sadness and even righteous anger in me. And in those situations, having had our eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, our responsibility is certainly to speak up for those who have no voice. While at the same time we must pray that the Holy Spirit would open their spiritual eyes so they can see Truth.
Although what we see unfolding in our country and around the world is deeply discouraging, we shouldn’t be surprised. Writing to Timothy about what it will be like in the last days, Paul writes, “Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
One final thought; it’s easy to become outraged when you clearly see someone else who is apparently rebelling against God’s will, and yet may it not be so with you and me that we would overlook the ways we give ourselves grace for our own willful disobedience. Instead may we have the humility of the blind man who when Jesus asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” said, “I want to see.”
So grateful to be able to see, Mike Altena