Have you ever looked directly into the sun? Knowing it was a bad idea perhaps you looked away quickly only to see spots before your eyes from where the brightness temporarily blinded you. Trying to get your bearings, you blinked several times, shook your head and tried to refocus so you could see clearly again. It probably only took a minute, but in that time, if you had stopped to think about it, it wasn’t any fun to be blind. Not being able to see – even temporarily – is a challenge to say the least. The people who have to deal with it everyday may learn to cope with it – because they have to – but I’m sure they wouldn’t wish it on anyone. In our everyday lives, we often have blind spots (areas in our lives that we are blind to). Perhaps we have had others try to tell us about issues that we need to deal with so we can overcome them and live a more balanced life. Perhaps others have even repeatedly pointed out things in our lives that really and truly needed to be worked on so everyone involved would get along better and be more productive. Or perhaps no one has said anything because they are afraid – afraid the other person would only take it the wrong way and lash out at them in anger (thinking the person speaking was only trying to control them when, in reality, they really did have only the best of intentions to help). So, the question today is, do you have blind spots in your life? (Or do you know someone who does?) If so, what is something that can be done to help the person involved “see the light”? Consider these verses found in Ephesians 4:15,16 (NIV), “ … speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” So, did you catch that? Love … that is the answer. Speaking the truth in love to someone who has a blind spot will help them to grow and mature. It is beneficial to everyone involved. As each person does their part – one person humbly and lovingly talking, encouraging, and being honest with the person who has a blind spot (in a sincere effort to “build up” the other person so they can grow and mature and have a better, more positive life) – and the other person humbly and lovingly receiving the first person’s words of wisdom (being open to change and open to instruction) … when that happens, it’s a win-win for all involved – everyone grows and matures in the process. So, today, remember the timeless truth of speaking in love … there’s nothing like it to shine light on the blind spots of someone’s life!
Have you ever had a car that you thought would be a reliable, dependable vehicle only to discover later it was actually a lemon? You had invested so much money, so much time, and so much effort into trying to do the best you could into getting the best you could afford only to have your hopes crushed. What a disappointment. How about if you’re a business owner? Have you been diligent in carefully screening all prospective employees to find the right match for your company, thinking you’ve done all you could to ensure you would be hiring a dependable worker only to discover later they had lied on their resume and had actually convinced other people to lie just so they would get a positive reference when you called to check out the person’s character. Wouldn’t you be disappointed? Wouldn’t you wish there was some foolproof way to be sure the next time you hired someone you wouldn’t have to go through the same thing again? Don’t we all wish that there could be something or someone that we could trust to be absolutely, completely dependable? Lamentations 3:21-23 (NIV) says, “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Did you catch that? The Lord’s compassions are new EVERY MORNING … every.morning. … Every Morning … every single morning. This timeless truth assures us that every day we can trust that the Lord is absolutely, completely dependable to be compassionate towards us. We can be absolutely sure He will be faithful. We can know, without a shadow of a doubt that He will always be there for us in whatever challenges we face … good or bad. Webster’s defines compassion as a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” So, when we comprehend that God Himself is compassionate towards us and that His compassion is new every single morning … no matter what we are going through, no matter what we are facing, no matter whether we bought a lemon for a car, whether we hired an undependable employee, whether we ourselves need to learn how to be more dependable ourselves … no matter what we face in life, we can trust that God will ALWAYS be there for us in a dependable, compassionate way that desires to alleviate whatever distress we may be in. So, if you need anything … anything at all: strength, help, hope, encouragement, love, peace, joy, wisdom, enablement to keep on keeping on … whatever it may be, you can trust that God will be absolutely, completely 100% dependable every single morning to compassionately be there for you to meet your need. He is faithful. He will never let you down. His desire is always for your ultimate good. His ways are higher than our ways, so sometimes His ultimate good may look different than what you may consider to be good … meaning you will most likely still have to go through some hard stuff in life … but our ultimate good always comes whenever we trust the Lord to give us the strength to get through whatever we may need to go through and when we learn whatever valuable lesson we may need to learn in the process. So, today, whatever you are facing, know that God wants to compassionately be involved in it. He compassionately wants to help you in more ways than you could ever imagine. He wants you to trust that He, alone, is absolutely, completely dependable … through it all.