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Taking Inventory of Ourselves

I once read a poem entitled, Two Ghosts.  In this poem the author, Thomas Jones, describes himself like a pair of ghosts.  One is the boy he used to be; the other is the man he might have been.  They are both deeply disturbing.  The boy he used to be had such high hopes for the man to be.

In one degree or another, we can all identify with the writer.  Most of us have unfulfilled dreams of what might have been.  Paul tackled this subject when he asked the question, “Do you not know your bodies are God’s temple and that the Holy Spirit dwells in you?”  He encourages all of us to think bigger of ourselves, not because of our successes, but because of God’s intentions.  He has high expectations for each of us.  Did God make any of us with the intention of failure or lacking the possibility of fulfillment?  If I understand the desire of God in creation and the meaning of re-creation (salvation), I think not.

One of the great promises of our faith is that there are always opportunities for new beginnings.  Course correction is available if we are not headed in the direction God intended.  It could be that the restlessness some of us feel inside when we are doing less than our best is that Spirit of God who dwells within us stirring us to new heights.  Oh, I know we have to be careful about pride.  But I have found most of us in the Christian community do not really think big enough, long enough or hard enough about why we are here and the possibilities God built into who we are.

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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