Recently I had an eye exam because my reading glasses weren’t really helping that much anymore. I noticed that things looked fuzzier when I was reading or if I was using the computer. The eye doctor said it was the usual vision changes that come from aging (sigh) and wrote me a prescription for stronger lenses. 

I noticed when she was doing the eye exam just how blurry things had been.  First, she examined me using my current prescription and then added a different lens.

“How’s that?” she asked.

Suddenly, everything was so much clearer. I hadn’t realized just how bad the problem was until she added those new lenses. 

Our life is just like that. We sort of get used to the daily living and don’t realize how much we aren’t seeing clearly, until it gets bad enough for us to question it.

When we start to get rid of distractions in our life, whether it is physical or mental clutter, we start to see so much more clearly. Our vision becomes sharper. All of a sudden we can focus again–on things that matter.

The Bible is like those prescription lenses. When I look through the lens of Jesus, everything changes. What I thought was clear, really wasn’t. It becomes so much clearer when I fill my mind with His Word! When I look at everything through the lens of the Bible, the rest of the world and the things I thought were so important, sort of fade into the background.

And Jesus becomes my focus.

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.

Oh, to know that truth and hold tightly to it. The more we look to Him, the less we seek after the things of this world.

That is my purpose in living a more simple life. It is not merely just to live with less, but it is to live with more Jesus.

Won’t you join me on this journey to seek Him wholeheartedly? To live more simply, so we can clearly see? To let Him fill our every need. To find contentment in Him alone.

Let’s turn our eyes upon Jesus.

 

The theme for our Simply Living for Him summer retreat is Turn You Eyes Upon Jesus and we will spend time focusing on Him alone. We will learn to seek His face so the things of this world will naturally fade away.