Wednesday, November 19, 2014

different eyes, different world

By now you kind of know what the world looks like from my window. 

It's a fascinating thing when you start looking at the world through medical eyes.

You begin to realize you're looking at history as changed by health - WWI was ended by the flu...the Huns riding across the prairie-dog-infested-plain brought Black Death to Europe...hemophilia spreading through the royal houses of Europe led to Rasputin's power and the downfall of Russia's crown...

You're think about geography in the same way - recent travel to various countries in Africa, and it's malaria, to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, or Nigeria - Ebola, to Mexico, Hepatitis A, to Panama, yellow fever...

Scientific advancements in biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, are all seen for how they changed the advancement of medicine in certain areas of the world.

As for novels and movies...heh. Could they realistically have healed from that already? They're going to get cancer. Ow. No way is that person walking away from that...You should see my excitement when something gets medical details right. XD It's kinda funny.

The other day in one of our classes we were told to all write down what basically amounted to a prayer. (A very general PC kind of prayer, but there were quite a few of us who took it more literally) And then we had to go around and read what we were asking for. Mine was something along the lines of Let me see the world through Your eyes, Lord, and know how to serve those around me. (I had to come up with it on the spot, because I didn't realize we were reading them out loud until I'd already written down a bunch of stuff that wouldn't make sense to anybody else. XD)

To see the world through the eyes of a medical professional is a complicated {and sometimes painful} process that takes years and massive amounts of effort. (A year and a half in, and I'm just starting to get it.) Sometimes God lets the scales drop from our eyes, and salvation can be a massive and complete world-view shift...but I think sometimes I assume that because I'm saved I'm seeing things the way I should. 

They say to walk a mile in someone's shoes to understand an INFP writer (these are the eyes through which I've been seeing the world almost my entire life), I can see where someone's coming from farrrrr too easily...which means sometime I catch myself looking at something that don't quite make sense, and I realize I'm looking at God's world through the world's eyes. 

Sometimes it's just the eyes of stupid - the other day I had a test (I literally always do, though some are of more consequence than others) and was praying that I would get a good score...but even as I prayed I was saying, I don't want to be like Baalam...if You don't want me to do well on this for some reason then I don't want to keep asking...but I really, really want to do well. I want to study the way I need to study, to focus on this material, to really learn it...but only if it's Your will...and the only good thing about that is I didn't need Baalam's donkey to set me straight there. 
The difference, dummy, is that Baalam was asking for something God had told him not to do. Begging for some way around God's clear "No." Doing well in this course is actually something God has already told you to do. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might, as unto the Lord and not unto men. etc etc etc. Of course you're supposed to do well. SO ASK FOR HELP AND GO DO WELL. 

oh. Oh. OH. I couldn't believe I'd even been thinking that. And yet I'd been looking at the situation with eyes that were so clearly not working. That is a painfully embarrassing example, but it happens more easily than you realize, which is why I think we read things like make your calling and election sure - we need to be alert to looking wrongly at the world and quick to adjust our view when God shows us truth. 

It's something that's come up several times in my life recently, and so something I'm starting to look for - what are the things in my life that skew my vision, that upset my gaze, that prevent me from seeing the world the way my God would have me see it? What are the things that help me see clear? That deepen my vision and broaden my understanding? How do I decrease the former and increase the latter?

Through whose eyes are you seeing the world?

5 thoughts shared:

Ashton said...

Beautiful post... and interesting as well. :)
and your question at the end... inspired me to write a post. *grins*

Vicki said...

This is majorly thought-provoking. I've often found myself doing the same thing, particularly in the area of being "judgmental." I like to get along with people and just love them the way they are; and sometimes I know I'm glossing over things they say or do that I really need to call them out on, but I'm looking at preserving the relationship instead of actually calling them out on something that needs to be addressed. Looking with temporal eyes instead of eternal.

I'll address that more with you sometime when it's not 1:37AM with several projects happening the next day ... ;-)

Hugs!!! I hope you're doing well!

wisdomcreates said...

Great post, Katherine Sophia.

Katherine Sophia said...

Thank you, Ashton! I shall have to watch for it... :) Which of your blogs will it be on?

Exactly, Vicki...that is one that gets me a lot. Especially when I see people being overly harsh/not accepting at all, and I completely overcompensate, which is just as unhelpful. Maybe more, I don't know. I look forward to that future time! XD and I hope your projects are going well!

You have a new name, wisdomcreates! :) and thank you!

Ashton said...

Uh, it'll be on my junglechica blog. :)


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