Previously we discussed the importance embracing the facts and data of reality.
Dallas Willard beautifully said somewhere, “Reality is what you run into when you are wrong!” These external realities orient us.
When we come to the edge of ourselves, we reach a limit in our performance. It is time to take a look inside of us and see what the internal reality is that we are bumping up against.
For us to rise to the challenge of facing new and larger demands, we must acknowledge and address the issues that are limiting us.
Blindspots
Traveling for work and renting different cars frequently has taught me that every car has blind spots. We learn a cars blindspots with a few zings of fear when another car comes upon us that we didn’t realize was there.
My new car has a Blind Spot Warning system. When I put on the indicator, it lets me know if there is a car in the other lane. Genius!
Awareness of what’s unseen is a powerful thing. Without it, we are dangerous. And once we see something, we can’t un-see it. But it takes willingness and courage to accept it.
We all have parts of us that we hide, repress, or deny. These can be either good or bad things; its just that they are hidden from us.
How to See the Unseen
Bring to mind someone that gets under your skin. Something about them irritates and annoys you.
Maybe it’s an engineer at work who is lazy, and you wish they would get off their arse and do something.
Or maybe it’s your sales manager who always brings up how a deal is going south and holds his head like Chicken Little.
Or maybe it’s a coworker who flips out and talks about you to everyone else on the team just because you offered up a small suggestion about how she could do things more effectively.
The truth about me is that it didn’t take me too long to come up with these examples. I’m easily bothered!
The things we don’t like about others is a reflection of what we don’t like about ourselves. How we judge others is how we judge ourselves. What we find unacceptable is others, reveals what we don’t accept about ourselves.
Once we see it, accept it and own it, we can integrate that part of ourselves and move past it.
Having people in our lives that help us see these things and process them is vital. It takes courage to admit our shortcomings to others, but when we find out that people love us anyway, these issues lose the power they have over our lives.
Like Trees Walking Around
In the Gospel accounts, it is striking how many miracles are about Jesus restoring vision. Before one of the most memorable or perplexing of these healings, Jesus connects sight with faith, understanding and awareness.
Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Mark 8:17-18
Philena Heurtz, talks about how Christian contemplative practice helps us “recognize that we are blind and we need to see, and we need Jesus to open our eyes.”
They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home saying “Don’t go and tell anyone in the village.”
Mark 8:22-26
I love the faith of this guys friends, bringing him to Jesus and begging for healing. Having others in our lives, who champion our growth is vital. If we don’t see ourselves accurately, we need safe people in our lives that can call out whatever they see in us, whether good or bad.
Interestingly, the first attempt came up short. Maybe Jesus needed to calibrate the healing machine! Or maybe the vision of people walking around as trees have something to say about us.
Stiff and hardened. Unaware of what’s really going on. Unconscious and sleepwalking through life.
We are people who don’t fully understand reality, lacking the courage to see things as they really are.
Awaken us, o God.
—
The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters,
but a man of understanding draws them out.
Proverbs 20:5