A Blind Spot!

For if you listen to the Word and don’t obey, it’s like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like! James 1:23-24

A blind spot is defined as any area immediately surrounding you which cannot be directly observed by you within your normal field of vision. Lately, I seem to be more aware of this term especially when driving around our area. The last few weeks seem to have been especially bad as folks are throwing caution to the wind and only concentrating on getting somewhere as fast as they can! Several accidents have been caused because we don’t see someone on one side of us because they are in our blind spot.

Blind spots aren’t found only during driving, they can appear in relationships, friendships, work, and even our spiritual lives. Have we ever stopped to consider that each of our lives possess some blind spots? Sometimes life has a way of blindsiding us We never see something coming because it’s in our blind spot. Just like traffic accidents occur when someone changes lanes with out checking their blind spot. and soldiers are wounded in battle because they never saw the enemy approaching on their blind spot, we can experience them during our daily lives.

In 1985, one of Spain’s most famous matadors, Jose Cubero, was killed in a bullfight at the age of 21. At the end of the bullfight, he thrust his last sword into a bleeding, disoriented bull, and the bull collapsed. Thinking that the battle was over, Jose turned to the crowd and bowed in acknowledgement of their cheers. Unbeknownst to Jose, the bull was not dead. What he assumed to be cheers of victory were actually shouts of terror. The bull arose and lunged at the unsuspecting matador piercing his back and puncturing his heart with his horns. The bull was in his blind spot. If only Jose could have seen what the crowd saw, he might have lived to fight another day.

Whether we will admit it or not, all of us have blind spots. These blind spots in our lives can be anything from treatment of others, to our past, to our pain, or simply human conditions or limitations. It is important to identify the blind spots that are causing us to stumble and take some time to understand why they have a hold on us. The blind spots only become a problem when we are unwilling to check on them or maybe even admit that we have them.

There are many blind spots, but three have come to mind this week. First, spiritual blind spots are common in our lives. We see how we want things to be, how we think things should be, or how we want to see things, but we miss what God is doing right in our midst or even right next to us. God is out there performing miracles and creating holy moments for us every day, but we allow our blind spots to overshadow the good.

We also have emotional blind spots in our lives. It’s easy to become encumbered with the idea that life isn’t fair. We can find ourselves beaten down with what we perceive as being “bad things that happen to good people” and try to rationalize God’s role in all this. It’s all right to shed tears, but rest assured all the hurt means something to God, and our life, our experiences, our pain is recorded and precious to Him

Finally, we have the blind side of apathy. Our generation is becoming one of indifference or sleep walking. We aren’t literally asleep, but we pay little or no attention to what’s going on around us. As pressure from the world around us intensifies bringing so much stress to our lives, we finally reach a point where we just say, “Who cares?” The Bible would disagree with this attitude and warns us to “be attentive, watch, and pray always.”

When we identify our blind spots and replace them with the presence of God in our everyday life, He can remove the spiritual and emotional hindrances and replace the apathy with action helping us make this crazy unpredictable life we live meaningful.

This week learn from the one who leads you, look to the one who lives for you, and listen to the one who loves you!