Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 1:11

For a while now, Jocelyn has been complaining that it’s difficult to read the whiteboard at school. The great mother that I am, it only took me a solid year to make an appointment with the eye doctor!

Sure enough, she needs glasses for distance. The eye doctor said he wasn’t surprised. He sees more and more young people who are becoming near-sighted because they spend so much time looking at things up close.

He advised that whether we’re looking at a screen or reading a book, it’s critical that we look up every twenty minutes and focus on something in the distance. Otherwise, our eyes will lose their ability to see far away. In a joking way, he predicted that with how the world’s becoming more and more dependent on screens, our far-sightedness will eventually phase out. Through evolution, we’ll become creatures who can only see close up.

In a way, his advice is similar to prayer.

When our eyes remain locked on the things of this world, we fixate on the issues in our own lives, the troubles of our nation, and the calamities that befall our world. Soon enough, we lose our ability to see hope.

Hope is about the promise of things to come. If all we do is look at what’s right in front of us, never raising our eyes to God, we’ll stop believing in the good that will be ours in the future. It’s by spending time with Him, in prayer, that He lifts up our spirit, above the muck, so we catch glimpses of the plans He has for us down the road, plans to prosper us and give us joy.

We mustn’t risk losing our ability to see into the distance where joy awaits. Let’s raise our eyes often to God and focus on what’s to come.

Questions for Reflection:

• Am I prone to focus on the here and now, and all that’s wrong in my life and in the world?
• Does my perspective change when I look into the distance and focus on the hope of what’s to come?