For we live by faith, not by sight. – 2 Corinthians 5:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 12, 2018): 2 Corinthians 5

Seeing is believing, but it might not be the truth. Study after study asserts that we really can’t trust what it is that we see with our eyes. Eyewitness testimony is not as valuable as we once thought it to be. The problem is that we are so good at deceiving ourselves, that even what we see is vulnerable to reinterpretation. Even our memories change. Over time, it is possible to convince ourselves that we saw an event happen, even when we didn’t really see what it is that we thought we saw. It is an incredible truth that I have to admit I struggle to understand.

But that doesn’t stop me from believing what I think I see, even if it is not the truth. When I was eighteen, I was held up in my apartment at gunpoint by a stranger. I remember the events of that night as if they happened yesterday. I can see the small gun, the three men, I can hear the questions, I know it happened, and I believe that it happened the way that I remember it, and it is mindboggling to think that in some of the details I might be wrong. Seeing has made me a believer, but what I believe might not be the truth. And the fact that stress was involved in the situation probably makes my recollection of that night even more dubious. And that is very hard to understand or to admit.

Paul argues that it is better for us to live by our inner eyes of faith, and not by the sight of our outer eyes. The reality is that everything we see with our eyes, we interpret through the lens of what we believe anyway. I see it all the time. People react to affronts that do not exist even though they are convinced that their senses have revealed the insult. What they have seen has been filtered by what they believe to be true, essentially a statement of faith. Faith surrounds everything that we do and every expectation that we hold. And if it is not faith, then it is the anti-faith of pessimism that surrounds us. Either way, everything we see is being put through a filter of our own design.

So why not take a presumptive strike at the filter. We know what it is that we profess to believe, not because it has been revealed to us by our eyes, but rather because we have chosen to believe what has been revealed to our inner eyes of faith. We believe that God is in control, even when everything our eyes see seems to reveal a world that is spinning out of control. We choose to be salt and light in the world, even though we are not convinced by what we see that we can make a difference. We choose to interpret the world through a positive lens, rather than a negative one, and therefore we understand that there is much more to life than just what it is that we see.

And we are walking toward a positive tomorrow. In faith, we know that things can get better than what we see with our eyes today. We are ready to work toward that positive future, because we have chosen to walk by faith, and not by sight.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 6