Transformational Thought
When I was a kid, I saw a cartoon in which they sliced off the top of a character’s head and threw in a bunch of stuff … as if his body were an empty container you could fill with ingredients. I used to wonder what the inside of a human body was like. Until I actually saw it, I had a hard time imagining the amazing and intricate way God arranges all these odd components in our bodies, gets them to stay in the right places, and then actually uses them to move us around and function.
As a physician, I’ve been tremendously blessed by opportunities to see inside and study live human bodies. I’m always amazed at how cool, complex, unexplainable, and interwoven the human body and its physiological systems truly are. “Impossible” is what comes to my mind when I hear of doctors, especially psychiatrists, who don’t believe in a divine creator after they have studied the human body, especially the brain and the workings of the mind. After life itself, our minds and free will are the two greatest gifts God gives us. They are amazingly powerful and complex.
Besides the brain/mind, the coolest, and arguably most complex physical organ, is the eye. It’s the main gateway through which information enters our minds, is processed, resulting in our growth. Our minds follow what our eyes see. The Holy Bible contains many messages – some obvious, some subtle, and others more intricate. Today’s scripture reading teaches us to have eyes that see and ears that hear the truth, a passage that is simple yet profound.
Notice that God doesn’t say “Look to me and you might be saved.” He says you will be saved. Can it get any simpler? When you look at God, and see Him for who He truly is and what He has done for you, you can’t stop the force of repentance. You can’t help but accept His gifts of love, forgiveness, and salvation.
Satan isn’t going to let it be that easy. That’s why we need to fight against the brainwashing that comes at us from the world and our own minds. We are so gullible, especially as kids, and Satan relentlessly attacks us with deceptions that smudge and distort our lenses. Satan’s goals are: 1) we won’t see ourselves for who we really are; 2) we won’t see God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit for who THEY really are; 3) we don’t know what truly happened on the cross and why.
Today, take time to examine what you are looking at. Then determine how clear your lenses are. Seriously wake up and look to God. Build your hope on Him. Even if there are a hundred-and-one things vying for your attention, push them aside and look to Him. Let Him be the filter through which you see everything else in life. “Look unto Me,” and salvation is there, the very moment you look. Don’t just glance and turn away, really look! Whether you demand to use clear lenses or you settle and use distorted ones is your decision, so choose well.
Prayer
Dear Father God, I look to You, for You alone are my Lord and my God. There are so many forces trying to take my eyes off You. Please strengthen my resolve to keep You as my focal point and my guiding light. I know You will direct me and show me the path if I fix my gaze on You. Give me discernment to realize when Satan is mimicking You. Thank You for still loving me even though I am frequently tricked. Help me to strip off the old and clothe myself with a new lens and a new self. I pray this in the name of the One whom You sent to be my lighthouse, Jesus Christ; And all the children of the world say – AMEN!
The Truth Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:22
And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell. Mark 9:47
