Vision

The person who took this photo takes many incredible pictures.  The definition and clarity are stunning as well as the detail.  Note the pollen on this bee and on the flower itself.  The person who does these pictures is slowly losing their sight.  Yet with every year the photos just seem to grow with their beauty. 

I think it is that way for us too.  Sometimes we have to lose something in order to get clarity.  Jesus is talking about that today (Luke 21:5-19).  Its hard to see how a prediction of the end times fits in with vision, but Jesus is saying just because you start to see signs don't get lost and think there is nothing to do.  This is what Paul is picking up on too with the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 3:6-13).  Don't think that Jesus' coming again means we have nothing to do but be idle.  Work, he is saying. 

Sometimes in order to have clearer vision we need to look closer at Jesus himself.  This week has been full of chances to glimpse something deeper.  Such as Jesus healing all these people he was trying to get away from and then having compassion and wanting to feed them.  Jesus was concerned about the whole person not just one specific need or one specific angle.  He comes wanting to provide wholeness.  So what would it be like to slow down and revision?  Listen, truly listen to someones story this week, have a coffee, buy a lunch and don't offer advice just listen.  Or for those of us involved in feeding ministries what would it be like to pray with someone, slow down listen to why they came for food and pray with them?

Maybe instead of getting caught up in whose actually trying and who is not, or who is actually sinning and who is not, maybe we need to look at the whole person.  Focus in, get some clarity, and plunge forward in a Jesus way.  Not just once in a while but everyday, can we dare to step up and wrap our arms around the unlovable, the homeless, the ones who are pushed out of our churches and let them know that God loves them too.  After all we just might bring about the kingdom if we really work at it.