Daily Bread

‘No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.’

Here's an interesting thing. The Greek word 'haplous' interpreted as 'healthy' and 'unhealthy', when speaking of the eyes, means not just physical health but also spiritual health. Think of Jesus as using the idiom, 'to see clearly' as in 'to see something how it really is'.

If you have physical vision you can see where you are going and the body can follow, and if you have a lack of physical vision you cannot see where you are going and the body cannot follow. In the same way, if you are not blinded by falsehoods, untruths, misconceptions, and corruptions, you can interpret the world around you and see things as they really are. This kind of 'seeing' is called spiritual discernment, and if you have the correct spiritual perspective then your body — your life — will be filled with passion and purpose, and you will know which direction to take.

Those things that prevent us from seeing, are things that distract us from living the life God want us to live, and one of the biggest of those is materialism — stuff that takes our focus away from God's divine values. Another way of describing this distraction is to focus or fix our attention on 'earthly' things.

For each of us, those materialistic things will no doubt be different. It may be helpful to spend a moment thinking about the things you love or spend your time dreaming about! Of course, God wants us to have good things, but they must never ever take the place of God in our lives.

Holy God
Help me to lift my eyes from that
which would prevent me from seeing the way,
such that my life is filled with divine passion and purpose.
And as I rejoice in the gift of this new day
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set my heart on fire with love for you;
Now and for ever.