When I fly, I prefer for the skies to be clear and sunny. I just want the pilots to see things clearly. I have been on flights where it was only a few hundred feet up that you could actually see the ground. I know that the instruments guide the pilots and plane to where it needs to be but I just prefer a clear line of sight.
As I drink coffee some mornings, the steam fogs up my glasses. As the mist goes away, I can see clearly again. Then it dawned on me, this is the spiritual life. We discover we are imbued with the living God but it is just a blur. As the mist recedes, we can see more and more clearly until everything comes into focus. The spiritual life sharpens our focus but it also widens our focus until we can look upon the whole world the way God does.
Sharp focus is great, but what about line of sight? You see, the “foggy glasses” part is us growing in the Spirit from within. Line of sight is how we see the world. This is where it gets more complicated because things can block our view, our line of sight to see the Living God in others. Our sight most often gets blocked by our own ego, our understanding that we know best. It can also be blocked by fear.
These barriers to our “line of sight” are many. Some we put there ourselves, like fear, ego, or shame. Some arrive there through the world around. Isn’t it interesting that Peter is a great example of this. In almost one breath, Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah and then tries to tell Him what he should do. Jesus response, I believe, reflects this notion of line of sight. Jesus says, “get behind me Satan”. In that phrase, Jesus is clearing his line of sight to his heavenly Father.
I think I have some work to do. First to clear them mist from my spiritual glasses and then to remove the objects blocking my line of sight. This is the process of becoming a contemplative or a mystic. You see we cannot just clean our glasses and leave the objects. We must clean our glasses (do the interior work) so that we can see the objects blocking our sight. So, what say we clean our glasses, put them on and see clearly what is keeping us from seeing the living Christ in everyone, everywhere?
TMM