Myopia

'Where there is no vision, the people perish…' ~Proverbs 29:18a~

In modern America, the modus operandi is me-me-me, what is best for me, what I need, what I want, me-time, etc.  I even saw a review of a new book, though fictional, it was encouraging the idea of 'me'-ternity leave, that is, maternity leave for women who are not welcoming a child into their families, the author apparently appalled that certain women get extra time off just because they happen to have kids, it just isn't fair!  I just wonder how far this sense of entitlement can go, we are so focused on ourselves that we not only neglect others, but we underestimate God; we make Him into a thing as small and fickle as ourselves.  This idea of individualism has not spared the church.  How many people never experience 'the body of Christ,' because they 'don't need the church' or it's 'just not my thing.'  We can do the church thing on our own, at home, at the lake, whatever, as long as we're thinking about God, right?  Not so much, to continue Paul's analogy, it is something akin to one of your cells deciding it doesn't need the body and trying to set up shop on its own: it will die.  You won't die physically, but spiritually, you are going to shrivel up and never flourish, like a seed cast upon the sidewalk, you'll never grow or bloom.

Another aspect of this is those of us who have grown up in homes and been educated in places where there is no hope, no joy, no love, wherein loneliness and fear and doubt are all you ever know; we don't know that there is such a thing as wonder in the world and can little comprehend it.  It is scary (a good scary) just how big God is, how much He is doing, and how wonderful it will be when brought to fruition, but it can be hard to see, either because we are intentionally blind or because we were never taught to see.  The ugliness of this world is everywhere, even in our own souls, we can't escape seeing it, but 'God is not dead, nor doth He sleep,' at least if you know how to look for Him.  I was reminded of this earlier this week at a lady's conference I attended, where I was happily reminded that it is not about me, or even us, but about Him.  All my problems and unease, doubts and fears, are nothing to Him who wrought the stars and flung the planets into their orbits, and better yet, He has called me beloved, and daughter, and child, words I never heard growing up, a reminder I so desperately need while I recover from my childhood traumas and learn what it is to actually be a person.

If your faith is stagnant or failing, if the world seems too big and ugly for you to believe in a good and loving God, it might be time to quit looking at yourself, worrying about all your concerns, and even take your eyes off the world about you, and rather look to the One who made it all.  Don't do it alone, get together with others, be part of the body, support one another, open your eyes to His presence in the world, see what His people are doing, and be part of it; lose yourself in Him to find yourself, that is what the church is for, that is what it means to 'lose the whole world and gain your soul.'