Close your eyes

This morning in my reading through the One Year Bible, this one verse stuck out to me.

2 Corinthians 5:7 says "We live by faith, not by sight."

Wow, so much packed into that little sentence. For me this is a constant tension in my life. Really up until a few years ago almost all of my decisions and my actions were based on what I could see. In other words, if I didn't know how it was going to work out, I probably wasn't going to do it. But then there was church planting. Since I began this process I've learned about moving and acting in the midst of uncertainty. From moving to surviving financially to leading down a path I've never been - all of it has been by faith. And God has proven himself so faithful during this time. He has provided for us when we didn't know how it would happen. He has blessed us for taking steps of faith where we didn't have clarity.

But the tension for me remains. Almost every day as a pastor I'm faced with what I can see - the very real circumstances of people's lives. There are marriages that are struggling, people healing through an abusive past, surgeries, and all kinds of hurt and pain. I'm faced with statistics, with attendance numbers, and with budgets. I'm faced with a growing church and growing kids ministry that doesn't have the volunteers to keep up. There are facts and figures and dates and schedules that start to dominate my thinking.

It would be very easy for me to allow what I can see to consume me, to overwhelm me, and to ultimately paralyze me. But we can't live that way. We won't live that way. We, as the people of God, we live by faith not by sight. The unseen drives us and compels us to keep going and to keep believing a different future is possible even when all that we can see now tells a different story.

Don't let your sight overcome your vision.

Sometimes I think you and I would do better if we closed our eyes every now and then. Because what we can see often keeps us from taking steps of faith. We lose hope. We lose our vision.

Your marriage doesn't have to be this way. Your finances can turn around. You can heal through this struggle. There is hope for you. When we stop living by sight and start living by faith our vision outgrows our sight. We start to believe things that right now seem impossible.

So whatever is holding you back today from doing what you know God has called you to do - close your eyes to it. Let the vision in your heart override what can be seen, and may your faith drive you forward into the uncertainty of the future.

Posted in: faith,Vision