Are you ready for a surprise? You blink twenty five times every minute. Each blink takes you about one-fifth of a second. Therefore, if you take a ten-hour automobile trip, averaging forty miles per hour, you will drive twenty miles with your eyes CLOSED.
I know a fact far more surprising than that. Some people go through LIFE with their eyes closed. They look but don’t really “see,” they observe the surface but omit the underneath. They focus on images but not issues. Vision is present but perception is absent.
If life were a painting, they would see colors but no genius in the strokes of the brush. If it were a journey, they would notice a road but no majestic, awesome scenery. If it were a meal, they would eat and drink but they would overlook the exquisite beauty of the china and the delicate touch of wine in the sauce.
If it were a poem, they would read print on the page but miss altogether the passion of the poet. Remove insight and suddenly we reduce life to mere existence with frequent flashes of boredom and indifference.
Those without insight dwell mainly in the realm of the obvious. . .the expected. . .the essentials. The dimensions that interest them are length and width, not depth. Please understand, I do not mean to be critical of those who CANNOT go deeper . . . but of those who can but WILL NOT. I’m not pointing my finger at inability but rather refusal.
As a concrete illustration, take the boatload of disciples in the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 6. Immediately after Jesus had miraculously fed thousands of people with a few loaves and fish, he sent his disciples away in a boat as he slipped off to a quiet place on the mountain to pray.
A storm later broke upon the sea and they were filled with panic. He came to their rescue shortly thereafter and calmed the sea as he stilled the wind and assured them there was no reason to be afraid. Mark makes a comment worth remembering: . . . they were greatly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened (vv. 51-52).
It wasn’t that they were unable to understand. That was the root problem. Those men were insensitive, dull, blunt-brained. They weren’t ding-a-lings by nature but by choice–and therein rested not the tragedy but the blame. Had they applied what they had observed earlier that day when the thousands were feed, their response to the storm would have been insightful.
Practically then, parents with insight usually raise kids that are secure, fulfilled, relaxed, free to forge out ideas and to think. Single adults with insight won’t feel they MUST marry–the sooner the better. Teachers with insight create an atmosphere conducive to learning. Bosses with insight develop employees and remain sensitive to their surrounding needs. Students with insight learn far more that the required subject–they indeed glean an education.
I challenge you: Open your eyes! Think! Apply! Dig! Listen! There’s a lot of difference between necessary blinking and unnecessary blindness.
Thanks to Charles R. Swindoll for these insights. Thanks to Jonathan Borba for the photo.
In YOUR day-to-day living, do YOU — Open your eyes! Think! Apply! Dig! Listen! If so, how so?
GOD ISN’T ASKING YOU TO FIGURE IT OUT. GOD IS ASKING YOU TO TRUST THAT HE ALREADY HAS!
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