For many years, I have relied on instruments to help me see the world as you do. As a nearsighted individual, it has been longer than I can recall since I awoke and could see anything before fumbling for my glasses at the bedside. Once at an optometrist, after he took my glasses and asked me to read the smallest line I could, I smiled and said, “I cannot read it, but I know it’s a large capital E”. I am very grateful that I have corrective lenses and that I was born in a time when they are not only available but also affordable, because I realize that if I had been born a few centuries ago, there is no way I would be a college professor, if I had survived to adulthood at all. I haven’t always felt that way. Many days it’s a pain to put in or take out contac lenses, and my glasses fog up, fume up, or smudge, and after long days they wear heavy on my nose. However, I have learned to look at them as a tool that makes life possible, and they have certainly enriched mine. Sometimes, I think we can’t see things because we don’t know how to look at them.
Sometimes the tools haven’t been invented by which we can see things. Last spring I taught microbiology for the first time, and we discussed Van Loewenhoek’s invention of the first microscope. This allowed people to visualize for the first time the smallest building blocks of life- living cells, and it provided evidence that microbes or microscopic organisms were responsible for maladies heretofore attributed to black magic, wickedness, or bad jujube. In more recent history, new technological achievements have helped us see macroscopic objects far beyond our ability to detect them. The Hubble Space telescope showed us that the darkest part of our sky is actually full of galaxies whose light has simply not yet reached the visible spectrum of our eyes. You see, we see things by bouncing light off of them, which is why we can’t see black holes or anything in the dark, because there’s no light by which our eyes can detect it.
At other times, perspective is what helps us to see. While running this morning, I noticed a younger gentleman also running at least some of the same route I take. Initially, I realized he was running faster than I, but then I noticed a curious thing that he would stop and walk at every half mile waypoint (intersection), which allowed me to catch up with him after following him for a half mile. By the mile point, he could no longer catch up with me because of his hiatus to a lower speed despite the fact that I ran more slowly than he, and by 1.5 miles, he was far in my wake. Similarly, a few weeks ago, I went with a friend of mine who is in far better physical shape in terms of weight, muscle to fat ratio, etc., and we hiked the East Rim at Zion National Park. This hike is 8.2 miles round trip and involves a steep ascent to a spot 2100 feet above the trailhead. He was completely bushed. I never really considered myself to be in good shape, but I realize now that what I have is stamina- an ability to keep going and go the distance even if over the short haul I cannot go as fast as others. Indeed, a few years ago, another fellow I know told me on one of the rare occasions people visit me at home, “Your discipline is your strength”. As I ran today, these words came to mind: “The race doesn’t go always to the swift or the strong but to those who push through to the end.” I don’t consider myself that fit, and I’m not technically an athlete, but I can endure what others cannot.
With all of our personal realizations and technological innovations, some things remain beyond our ability to see them well. Some things are beyond our poor power to see them. Just as an ant cannot actually tell what you are when you step across its path, there are forces in this world more powerful than you can possibly imagine. I have not and probably cannot see God because I have not learned how to look at Him. While it is true that sometimes I see glimmers of Him in the face of a child, the colors of a sunset, the majesty of a hummingbird in flight, or the intricacies of hypercoiled DNA molecules, I have never actually met God or seen Him in person. I do not feel that I need to in order to know He exists. Like CS Lewis says, “I believe in God as I believe in the noonday sun- not that I can see it, but that by it I can see everything.” In fact, if you look directly at the sun, it will blind you, and no manner of corrective lenses can restore that. Yet, many people do not seem to desire to see God or to have Him show them anything. They are those who are wise in their own minds and blind in their own eyes, who having eyes see not, because they are not interested in learning how to see. Like children who resist parental help accomplishing a task, we insist we do not need help and soldier on however inexpertly often towards disastrous results. I love the following cartoon that shows our ignorance (from the webcomic XKCD called “The Search”):
Just because we have tried all that we know does not mean we have found all there is to find. “Science never proves anything,” I tell my students. “It removes all other possibilities until only the truth remains.” Sometimes we cannot see because we don’t know how to look.
In truth, we are all blind. There is so much beyond our sight, beyond our vision, beyond our ability to understand. There was once a time when everyone 'knew' that the world was flat, that everyone 'knew' that Nevada would never reach the NCAA basketball tournament, and when everyone 'knew' that housing investments were always a wise way to get rich. Imagine what we’ll 'know' tomorrow. I feel sorry for people with no room to learn. As a professor, I see a few of these every year, people who already know everything, people who are the star of their own Truman Show, in which all the rest of us are relegated to roles as supporting cast. We have nothing to contribute. We are there for comic relief or to serve them. They do not see because they do not wish to see, and that is sad. In truth, CS Lewis is correct again when his character Screwtape says that humans do not desire true nakedness in prayer as much as they claim. How much more cursed is he that knows God’s will and ignores him than he that only believes or only has cause to believe, and falls into transgression? I challenge you to acknowledge that, wherever you are in your progression, you are still a student and can still learn. I challenge you to ask God for wisdom, for training, for tips and pointers on how to become a true “seer”. I promise you that if you do so with real intent that He will teach you as He has me how to see, even if it’s while you jog or during a sucrose sublimation in science lab. I testify that as you turn the microscope of your spiritual eye to a higher powered lens it will make things resolve in clarity and that the God of Heaven and Earth will show you what He has in store for you, what He has done, and what you can do to be in tune with His will. I testify that this awareness will give you stamina to finish the race, to ascend the heights, from which you can see what normally only the eagles who dare ever do, which is a glorious and wonderful sight to behold.
5 comments:
Awesome. Perfectly and clearly said. I LOVE this one!
I enjoyed this one, but a thought occurred to me - Have you considered Lasik surgery? I would have to give up my contacts for 6 months to be able, but with soft lenses, the waiting period is much shorter.
This was not a grouse on the fact that I wear corrective lenses. In fact, I consider it a blessing that my poor eyesight gives me pause to consider the gift of perfect vision. We take things for granted sometimes because we don't realize what we have until it's gone, and since my eyesight is diminished I appreciate what remains.
As for Lasik, another optometrist actually talked me out of it. I do not think I will ever elect the procedure, because the costs outweigh the benefits in my opinion, or at least for what I value.
I looked into Lasik about 10 years ago. Some of the possible complications I found disturbing, especially when the procedure doesn't work and you need follow-up surgeries, or the "star" pattern on lights at night. And the thought of being awake while something comes at my eye, and you have to stay totally still.......But I have siblings and other family members who have done it.
This is such a beautiful post!
You know, my vision is the same, I know there is the "E" :-) I didn't start wearing contacts until I was 20 when I came to the US as an exchange student and bought my first contacts. In my teenage years, especially in school, I didn't want to be seen in glasses much, so I would use them to see things at the blackboard during class but would have them off at all other times. So I would walk everywhere not seeing much around, and that would make me live more in "my own world", in my thoughts and ideas.
Besides, I didn't have somebody wise to talk to, I couldn't talk to my mom, she didn't like that, the father wasn't with us. I wish I knew anything about God at those times or happen to get some spiritual book. Nevertheless, probably my internal strength and the God who was with me even without my awareness of him help me survive successfully my childhood and adolescence.
In the first half of my 20s I learned about God, spirit, and I was never completely lonely anymore. When I feel weak, He gives me strength and hope. When I don’t know what to do anymore, I might ask for a solution and it comes. With years, I learned to ask and talk with him more often. My daughter is a result of my asking for her, for example. Even the idea to go into nursing came after my asking Him for a while about what I should do in my life to fulfill my purpose, where I can be useful and do my best serving others.
I’m getting better, but I still need to practice more to remember about God more often, about his incredible unbelievable power over us, about my abilities and unlimited possibilities I have through Him. I want to fear less and trust more - that always gives so much courage and strength.
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