Spiritual Blindess

I was reading posts on some of the blogs that I normally track, and found one by Jay Voorhees of Only Wonder Understands called Light and Darkness: Reflections on John 9. I took some time and read it - I had just finished my devotion for the Lenten Devotional, and it was centered around light and dark. (By the way, the Lenten devotional is a poem, and it's posted right below this post).

I recommend Jay's post; it's long, but worth the time.

He talks about how we can be spiritually blind, and miss God in our lives. He gives several ways in which that can happen, but it occurs to me that there are even more ways -- in addition to the ones Jay lists -- that we miss God or his actions in the world.

• We assume that God is too busy to have anything to do with us. Do you ever feel that way? We get busy; we try to so many things at once that the lower priority items get lost. We assume God is the same way. He is not.
• We hesitate to claim that God is at work in our lives, because we think it sounds arrogant. Who are we that God would use us? Why would we be worth enough to be a tool at work in God's kingdom? We are worth everything to him, and the main way the work of the Kindgom is done is through us.
• Sometimes I think we just forget. We forget to pray, but we also forget to look around and notice what is around us. We just don't notice him.
• We fail to repent of our sins because we are afraid that God can't handle our sin. Isn't that silly? He already knows it, and is just waiting for us to KNOW it. I read this morning: We can't receive forgiveness because we don't ask for it. And when we won't experience forgiveness, we are much less likely to grant it. When we don't grant it, we are much less likely to experience it.
• Sometimes I think that so many other things get in the way, that the view to God is blocked. Walls between God and his children can be built of tradition (which Jay mentions), routines, busyness, idolatry, attempts at control, pride -- the list is endless.

From Jay's post:

To see the light, to know the light, to experience the light is about an inner knowledge, a sense of understanding, and a willingness to recognize what is happening before you is a gift of God, even if it doesn’t conform to your understanding of the world.