by Donya Dunlap | Apr 4, 2014 | The Spiritual Life
My friend Nathan has a completely magical way with children. (Literally…he uses magic in his presentations. He is a missionary to Brazil, by the way, and you should connect with him here and watch a video about his ministry here. If you’re lucky, he might make you a balloon animal.)
When Nathan begins to talk to a group of little ones, he tells them that they are going to play a game during his talk. Nathan knows that a child’s eyes and ears are connected. If they are not looking at him, they are not hearing what he is saying. He tells them that every time he says the word “eyeballs” they are to connect their eyes to his and say “CLICK!” Let’s practice, okay?
Eyeballs!
Nathan’s attention grabbing game is similar to what God does with us. God knows that grown-ups are basically kids at heart. Sometimes we get distracted and we lose our focus. We need to reconnect with Him to be engaged with His Spirit and to hear Him when He speaks to us. That is why you will read frequently in Scripture God telling people to lift up their eyes. God is also referred to as the lifter of our heads. When we get worn down, tired, and distracted, our eyes follow our thoughts. We start looking at our circumstances and our to-do lists instead of focusing our eyes on the One who is our help.
Earlier today I felt God saying to me, “Donya…eyeballs!” I woke tired and the cloudy day had me looking inward and toward the end of the day instead of the present. When God nudged my heart, I literally looked up from what I was doing and refocused my eyes. Do you know what I saw?
Cherry blossoms blowing in the wind. Hints of blue sky. A beautiful spring day.
What a difference from the gray morning I had been trudging through!
God desires to be in constant communication with us. He encourages us to pray without ceasing and to take our troubles to Him. He wants us to look up from our daily tasks and admire His creation. God knows that a deep breath of spring air and a face held up to sunshine can re-calibrate a soul. These are gifts He gives to us every day, but how many times do we notice them?
As we head into the weekend, I encourage you to take time to “click” with God. Take a walk. Open the windows and turn up the music. Sing in the shower. Make a special recipe. With each breath, thank God for His gifts of sight, taste, touch, and beauty. Connect with your Creator and tune in to what He may be trying to say to you.
Eyeballs…click!
Photo credit: Lotus Carroll / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
by Donya Dunlap | Apr 1, 2014 | The Spiritual Life
“You can’t see me!”
Lately I have found myself playing peek-a-boo with life. My schedule gets a little too hectic or work requires a little too much brain-power and I find myself wanting to escape for a while. I figuratively put my hands over my eyes, or more likely, pull the covers over my head, and pretend no one can see me.
We all have moments that we would like to make reality disappear, don’t we? Some turn to various substances to take their mind off their pressures. Me? I turn to stories. A good book. A captivating television program.
While I believe everyone needs to unplug and relax at times, these escapes can become unhealthy idols in our lives. I was reminded of this last night during the Infusion Bible study digging into the life of Gideon. Despite his fears and reluctance, Gideon drags himself out of hiding to confront the Midianites. This is no small accomplishment. Gideon was able to defeat the enemy that had been plaguing his country for decades through the power and leadership abilities that God had given him. Yet somewhere along the line, Gideon started to believe his own press and he got distracted. Instead of clinging closely to God, he disconnected from Him. He started hiding from Him. He began to operate on auto-pilot.
The result?
Well, for a time Israel was granted the reprieve they were looking for. They had forty years of peace under Gideon’s leadership. But Judges 8:33 tells us that just as soon as Gideon died, Israel returned to following Baal. The terminology is such that it makes me think they went straight from the funeral to the closets where their idols had been in storage. They never personalized their relationship with God. They were outwardly successful in riding the spiritual coattails of their leader for a time, but as soon as that link was broken, Israel went to what they knew. They escaped to their idols.
Israel’s go-to escape in trying times was Baal, the god of the sun that promised to provide for their needs. I wonder what your escape idol is? Ice cream? TV? Shopping? What do you turn to when you should be turning to Jesus? You go through the motions of church and even Bible reading, but in truth you are relying more on your escape time than your quiet time to get through the day. If this is you, you may need to revisit your grove and tear down the high places that have crept back into your heart.
I challenge you to consider how you have been spending your down time this past month. Do you see a pattern of simple rest, or have you developed a reliance on something other than the Lord? Set aside time today to commit this new month with fresh eyes focused on the Savior.
Photo credit: Blue Skyz Media / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
