It Happens Gradually

          I got to my eyes checked this week.  I really don’t know that I really needed to have them checked, but I do know that I need new glasses.  What I mean is that the lenses on my current glasses are cracking, so that it’s very annoying to use them.  And since I’m going to need new lenses anyway, I figured I might as well get my eyes tested to make sure the new lenses are exactly right for me.

           I really haven’t noticed any change in my vision.  What I suspect, though, is that when I get my new glasses, I’ll notice a pretty substantial change.  That’s usually how it works, anyway.  Things will look sharper.  Things will look clearer.  Things might even look brighter--I’ve had that happen in the past, anyway.  It’s kind of amazing.  When I use the same glasses for years, I don’t notice that my vision has changed.  But then, when I get the new glasses, It suddenly becomes obvious what a difference there is.

           How can that be?  Well, the answer is that it happens gradually.  My eyesight changes, so that I needed a new prescription, but it happens gradually, so gradually that I don’t even notice it.  The cracking is the same way.  It did not all happen at once.  It happened gradually, a bit at a time, so that it did not seem like that big of a deal at first.  Ultimately, my sight through those old glasses changed tremendously, but it changed so gradually that I did not notice how big the change was.

           It seems to me that something similar can happen when we drift away from God.  It happens gradually.  We don’t even notice it at first.  Eventually, we start to notice that something’s not quite right, not the way it should be, but we don’t think it makes that much of a difference.  We know we really should do something about it, just like I’ve known I really should get new glasses.  But we don’t think it’s that important.  So, we let it slide.  We put it off.  We tell ourselves that we’ll get back in touch with God later, when we have time.

            The thing is that when I don’t get new glasses, when I wait, the only person I’m hurting is myself.  I make things harder on myself than they need to be.  I might be getting by, but I’m missing out on a lot of stuff.  That’s true of our relationship with God, too.  When we drift away from God, and we don’t get back in touch with God, the only person we’re hurting is ourselves.  And we’re hurting ourselves by making things harder on ourselves than they need to be.  We may be getting by, but we’re missing out on a lot of stuff.  We’re missing out on feeling God’s love and God’s guidance in our lives.  And that’s too bad.

            Our eyesight is very important.  But our relationship with God is even more important.  Let’s not neglect either one.  Get your eyes examined, so your vision can be all that it should be.  But examine your relationship with God, too, so it can be all that it should be.  If we can see God clearly, everything else will fall into place.