Last month I was in Atlanta with some Campus Crusade friends. As I wrote about in previous posts, we visited the Civil Rights Museum and all of us listened to King’s reading of “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” as we drove from Auburn up to Atlanta. Looking backwards it is clear that King clearly had the moral high ground with the Civil Rights Movement. But at the time, most of us couldn’t see it. Letters to a Birmingham Jail was written to the churches of Birmingham, most of which were on the moral sidelines or they condemned King for not obeying the law of the land. Those of us who were Evangelicals said something like, “We believe that for man to change you must change the hearts of men…and as hearts of men are changed, societies will change.” I wish that were actually true. John Newton, who as a slave trader, came to faith and wrote the Hymn Amazing Grace. But it wasn’t until 15 years later that his eyes were opened to the moral “wrongness” of slavery. It wasn’t until Acts 10 that the Jewish believers were actually part of God’s plan (though Genesis 12:3, Psalm 67, Psalm 2, etc). They were blind. Think of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. The followers mistook Jesus for a gardener! On the road to Emmaus, they were so self consumed, that two disciples didn’t realize they were actually talking with Jesus! Feeling like we see with clarity today is not a guarantee or indictor that we actually are seeing things clearly.
What will we see with complete clarity five years or thirty years from now that we are blind to today–not just with social issues, but family matters, ministry and business decisions? What do we wish we had seen years earlier as part of our growth an healing? Jesus had these words in Matthew 13:15. “Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and I would heal them.”
I’ve been trying to start my days with the simple prayer that includes asking for “eyes to see.”
