Difficulty Seeing

I have severe myopia.  I’m very nearsighted.  I can’t see the numbers on my cell phone unless they’re inches from my face.  I always have an extra pair of contacts and an extra pair of glasses because if I don’t have one of the two, I’m practically helpless, even going from the bedroom to the bathroom.

Some days I have spiritual myopia.  All I can see is the moment by moment frustrations of life:  the child who cannot find a matching pair of shoes, the other child who insists her field trip money be turned in today, the pants that aren’t dry after an hour in the dryer, the scratchy throat that won’t go away, the endless stream of tasks that interrupt what I try to get done at work, the late lunch break, the junk food dinner, the leaderless scout meeting, the mountain of laundry in the basement…

Where’s God in all this?  Unfortunately the only prayers I managed today were, “help me Lord!” and a prayer of safety for a friend embarking on a cross country journey in a moving van with a preschooler and a dog. 

The Bible says to seek His kingdom first (Matthew 6:33).  Just like I put my glasses on before I even get out of bed, if I had put on my spiritual glasses, looking to God before looking at my to do list, maybe my day would have turned out differently.  The circumstances may have been the same, but I would have been different.  I would have been able to see my day through God’s eyes, and it wouldn’t have appeared as gray as the cold, cloudy October day. 

Tomorrow, even though the day will start earlier than normal, I’m going to remember to put on my spiritual glasses, and try to remember how insignificant life’s frustrations are in the grand scheme of all eternity.  And I made sure my son put his shoes by the door.