One of the ideas we find in the Bible is that humans are not able to look God in the face and live. In Exodus 33:20, the Lord says to Moses, "You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live." The idea here seems to be that God's holiness is so overwhelming, so massive, that humans simply can't handle it. It is similar to the way that we may go blind if we stare into the sun. Our eyes simply aren't made to handle that much intense light.
There is, however, a counter-idea that we find in the Bible, which is that one goal of our lives of faith is actually to seek the face of God. Psalm 42 pleads, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?" Psalm 27 insists, "Your face, Lord, do I seek." And just nine verses before the above text from Exodus 33 (which prohibited seeing the face of God), we read that "the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend" (Exodus 33:11).
To seek the face of the Lord, or not to seek? That appears to be the question.
In a corresponding manner, we may think about the power that is found in the eyes of others. In the course of ordinary daily activity, it is entirely possible to go throughout an entire day without ever really looking into the eyes of another person. We interact with others, we talk with others, we may even look at the eyes of others, but we may never really look into the eyes of other people. Why is this?
My sense is that this is because looking into the eyes of another person is such a powerful thing. Looking into the eyes of other people slows us down. You cannot look into the eyes of another person while you are in a rush. You cannot do a "drive-by-look" into another's eyes. If you look into the eyes of another person, you must stop doing everything else, slow down, and give them your attention. In biblical language, you must "die" to your haste and your hurry. (Maybe that's part of what it means that we cannot look at the face of God and live. A part of us - the part that is in a hurry - must die.)
For people who are in a hurry, this is a real problem. It is much easier and faster to just talk at someone, to get what you need from them, maybe even check in with them how they're doing, but then to carry on with whatever you're doing, and not to engage with them.
But when we look into the eyes and the face of another person, it is as though we enter a different sort of time and space. It is more intimate, and we are brought closer to the reality of the other person. It is popularly said that "the eyes are the window of the soul." If this is true, then when we look into the eyes of another person, we are drawing closer to the core reality of the other person. This proximity to the core of another person may feel threatening to us, or it may feel threatening to the other person. (It has long been the case that tyrants and overlords would not allow their subjects or servants to look them in the eye. To do so would violate the brittle lines of social hierarchy, indicating that the two persons were, in fact, equal human beings. What a radical idea!)
In the coming days, I would invite you to the spiritual practice of looking into the eyes of others, not just at them. Experiment with what this feels like. What feels refreshing and renewing? Does it feel threatening or unnerving? Does it feel relaxing, and can you feel yourself slowing down?
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Blind Spots
Two Sundays ago, the Revised Common Lectionary Gospel reading was John 9:1-41, in which Jesus heals a man born blind. One set of characters in this story is a group of powerful religious leaders, whom Jesus engages in conflict. (It's remarkable how often the good, proper, diligent religious leaders come in for quite a hard time with Jesus!!) These religious leaders are sure that they know the truth. Their certitude blinds them to dimensions of grace, truth, reality, neighborliness, mystery, and compassion.
This story makes me wonder about our own "blind spots." What are the things that keep us from seeing life clearly? What dimensions of reality, truth, grace, mystery, and life are kept hidden from us? To what aspects of life are we blind? What aspects of life are we unable to see?
Our biggest blind spots are often directly related to the primary ways that we like to think of ourselves. When our sources of identity and self-esteem are threatened in some way, we may lose our ability to perceive things accurately.
For example, imagine people who base their identity and self-esteem on how much money they have. The more money they have, the better they feel about themselves. Now, imagine those people losing an enormous percentage of their money in the stock market. If these folks genuinely believe that their self-worth is tied to the amount of money in their accounts, their capacity to see any beauty, joy, or abundance in the world will be severely diminished at that moment. They may begin to panic. They'll be blinded.
Or, imagine people whose self-esteem is based on whether people like them or not, whether people approve of them or not. When people praise them, they feel terrific. But now, imagine those people being severely criticized for something. If these folks genuinely believe that their self-worth, their identity, is based on whether people like them or not, then their ability to think clearly and calmly may be threatened when they get criticized. They may panic and be unable to see clearly.
Who are you? On what do you base your self-esteem? For many of us, we may have built our lives and our identity around becoming a success, or being thought of as nice, or being acknowledged as right, or around staying safe, or around being really popular. We may have become really good at these things! The trouble is that these things never last. They can be transient, fleeting, and taken away from us. And our zealous pursuit of these things can blind us to larger, deeper, more lasting dimensions of life.
This is why the Christian faith insists that the only firm foundation for our lives is God's gracious love for us. Everything else can be taken away from us. We haven't earned this love, we don't deserve it, and we can't control it. But God pours it out on us, abundantly, anyway. And it will never be taken away.
This story makes me wonder about our own "blind spots." What are the things that keep us from seeing life clearly? What dimensions of reality, truth, grace, mystery, and life are kept hidden from us? To what aspects of life are we blind? What aspects of life are we unable to see?
Our biggest blind spots are often directly related to the primary ways that we like to think of ourselves. When our sources of identity and self-esteem are threatened in some way, we may lose our ability to perceive things accurately.
For example, imagine people who base their identity and self-esteem on how much money they have. The more money they have, the better they feel about themselves. Now, imagine those people losing an enormous percentage of their money in the stock market. If these folks genuinely believe that their self-worth is tied to the amount of money in their accounts, their capacity to see any beauty, joy, or abundance in the world will be severely diminished at that moment. They may begin to panic. They'll be blinded.
Or, imagine people whose self-esteem is based on whether people like them or not, whether people approve of them or not. When people praise them, they feel terrific. But now, imagine those people being severely criticized for something. If these folks genuinely believe that their self-worth, their identity, is based on whether people like them or not, then their ability to think clearly and calmly may be threatened when they get criticized. They may panic and be unable to see clearly.
Who are you? On what do you base your self-esteem? For many of us, we may have built our lives and our identity around becoming a success, or being thought of as nice, or being acknowledged as right, or around staying safe, or around being really popular. We may have become really good at these things! The trouble is that these things never last. They can be transient, fleeting, and taken away from us. And our zealous pursuit of these things can blind us to larger, deeper, more lasting dimensions of life.
This is why the Christian faith insists that the only firm foundation for our lives is God's gracious love for us. Everything else can be taken away from us. We haven't earned this love, we don't deserve it, and we can't control it. But God pours it out on us, abundantly, anyway. And it will never be taken away.
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