Due to the Christmas week celebrations, the devotions for Thursday and Friday of this week will be from our July, 2000 archives. The live devotions will return on Monday.
Text: Matthew 6:22-23
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.
Clarity of vision. When the vision of the Reign of God, the will of God is so much a part of our lives, we will see in a whole new way. When our vision is not made cloudy by the various things that Matthew is calling "treasures" or "allegiances" or "concerns" of the world, we will live within the brightness of the Reign of God. How we see our world is a matter of life and death for we will often let our lives be led by that which takes from us all of our life. Years ago when I was a part of an anti-nuclear weapons group in Detroit I remember hearing a speaker talk about idols being those things or powers in our lives that demand that we sacrifice our lives for their existence. In many ways, most everything we let cloud our vision of the life in God's Reign, demands our full attention...and even our lives. Try it: How do the things and people in your life restrict the vision of God's call for justice for all in our world...how can family and/jobs restrict us from giving time to others and being proactive in our care of others...how can what we want (because so often "having" is something that must be constantly maintained so that we always "have" that which is the stuff we are supposed to have) steal our attention away from that which we could be giving to others in love? Vision...it is how we begin each day and how we carry on through the day. We read scripture and talk with other followers of Jesus, and worship our God in order that the vision of God's Reign will stay fresh in our lives and will be the lense through which we see our world and the lense that helps us walk into this day.
Connection: Take an inventory. What are the things (material, people, organizations, philosophical stances, etc) that cloud your vision so that we lose the light of the ways of life God invites us to share? How can we re-view all those things and make them into opportunities to open up the life of the Reign of God more fully. Ex: how can my love of family be an opportunity to share time with others rather than sacrifice time with others. How can I make family or close relationships an instrument by which I come to grasp a bit more of the life vision of the Reign of God?
O God of all things, make us insightful people. Guide our days so that we may enjoy the many gifts of your creation as we follow along the way of our Lord, Jesus. Amen.
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