October 1, 2024
Hi Friends,
I got the word on July 24th of this past summer. I still have 20/20 vision. That was good news but it was also frustrating. If my vision is so good, why do I need reading magnifiers to read over half the time? How is it that I can perceive the smallest movement of an animal in a field while driving by at 100 km/hr and not be able to clearly see the print on a shelf label at Home Depot? On a slightly different note, but in the same category of perception, how is it that I now see things that I saw thirty years ago, but in a completely different light?
I thought of these things a couple of weekends ago while on a men’s retreat when I read these words from Isaiah 43 and 44, as well as Psalm 115.
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you …”
“Do not fear, for I am with you …”
“I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.”
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
“Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it?” “You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD.”
Almost all of these statements are about fear or the past. The people to whom Isaiah wrote were catapulting to judgement. They were a people who “honored God with their lips but their hearts were far from him.” Because of this, the way of life they had known was deeply and imminently threatened. In addition, from God’s perspective, they were about to experience his judgment.
Yet, God says to them, “Do not be afraid.” Even in the ashes of judgment, he was doing something new. He challenges them to perceive it. Then, the psalmist adds this word that is both challenge and encouragement: “You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD.”
All of this leaves me with two questions. First, do I perceive what God is doing in my life or in the life of our community right now? Or, do I fail to perceive it because I’m too busy looking for what I want or too distracted by looking at what I like? The second question is, am I actually trusting in the LORD, or am I calling “trust” what is really self-reliance?
Perception is not reality but it can appear to be so. We can perceive the things in our lives and in our world as getting progressively worse or more threatening, and that may even be so, but that is not all that is going on or all that can be seen. God is still about the business of doing new things, saving the lost, re-organizing societies, setting captives free, giving hope to the hopeless. May God grant us the grace to be able to say with John Newton, “I once was blind but now, I see!”
O, LORD, help us to perceive what you’re doing! Help us to participate, when we come to the place that we see! Amen.
Blessings!
Doug