SHUT EYES

By Rick Mathes

It is because we shut our eyes that we become so sadly blind. I once questioned a donor about his Lutheran faith. I asked him, “What do you as a Lutheran believe? What is your doctrine?” He responded, “I believe what our church believes.” I pressed further, “What does your church believe?” He fired back, “They believe what I believe.” I insisted, “What do you both believe?” He answered, “The same thing!”  This is called circular reasoning as opposed to objectivism. It is a perfect example of “shut eyes.” There can only be one 12 inch ruler. It can’t be 11 inches for the carpenter and 10 inches for the mason and 13 inches for the electrician. This would be chaos.

I was born with two questions in my mind that have hounded me to this very minute. What is truth” and Why? I need to know the root cause and effect and this pursuit has been an exciting adventure I have no regret of continuing. All my thinking is proceeded with these two questions and they have got me in a lot of trouble over the years.

So I seek the greater truths and I chase down the “Why?” to it source. It has and continues to challenge my world view and provide an apologetic for my faith. What is greater than man personified in Christ, the God-man or Son of God?

There are greater truths in His Word:

• Greater depths of experience
• Greater heights of fellowship
• Greater works of usefulness
• Greater discoveries of power
• Greater expressions of love
• Greater levels of wisdom

Remember my question, “What is truth?” He makes the answer crystal clear when He announced “I AM the way, the truth and the life.” My follow up question “Why” is answered:

• We see Him in His truth without shadow and deception in His Word.
• We bask in His unbelievable love of sinners so much so as to wash dirty feet.
• We reach to His level of excellence to realize our level of mediocrity.
• We drop to our knees and give all submission to His Sovereignty

So here we are, back at the beginning. Shut eyes won’t help so take a good look at reality and turn your eyes upward to His guidance, not downward to spiritual blindness..