Focus

by Laura L. Smith 

Focus by @lauralynnsmith on @KindredGrace75% of the United States wears either contacts or glasses, including me.

Most of us struggle to see the world we live in more clearly, sharper, brighter. I had an eye check up last week — you know the kind where they dilate your pupils with drops and everything is blurry for hours and hours afterwards? It was that kind. Due to the dilation drops, I spent the rest of the day wishing I could see more clearly. I wished my computer screen wasn’t so bright, so I could write the chapter I’d been plotting for my new manuscript. I wished the words in the book I’m reading weren’t so blurry. I wished I could respond to an email, flip through my latest copy of In Style or even pay some bills online. But nothing smaller than a chocolate chip cookie would come into focus.How often do I wish I could see God’s plan for me, His vision of me, the way He sees the world  — better, sharper, brighter, more in focus? But sometimes His ways are too bright for me to stare into. Sometimes His plans for me are too far away for me to see clearly. Sometimes, I let the lens of the world distort and twist God’s vision, His plans. So, I beg for clarity like the blind men outside of Jericho:

“Master, we want our eyes opened. We want to see!” Deeply moved, Jesus touched their eyes. They had their sight back that very instant, and joined the procession.
Matthew 20: 33-34

When I pray, when I actually lean on Him to see how things truly are, I get my sight back. Not always the way I want things to look, like no writing after my eye doctor appointment, even though that’s what I’d planned. But always something amazing, like the wonderful phone call I had with my mom instead.

Lord, I really need to stop right now
Stop now and focus on you
(lyrics from “Focus” by Holly Starr)

When friends, magazines, TV shows, work, and other worldly voices try to fill our eyes with drops of advice and expectations and pressures to dilute His view of us, all we have to do is call out, “I want to see!” and everything comes back into focus.

How has God helped you see something more clearly this week?

Laura L. Smith is the author of the young adult Christian novels It’s Complicated, It’s Over, Skinny, Angry and Hot. She writes about True Beauty at Choose Now and on her own site. Find her on Twitter @lauralynnsmith

3 Comments

  1. This analogy is great! I think, so often, I bumble along with blurry vision rather than take the time to stop and pray for clarity and understanding. Thank you for the encouragement to do so!

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