Do short-sighted Christians make you want to avoid church?

Do short-sighted Christians make you want to avoid church? Not short-sighted as in eye problems. Short-sighted as an not thinking out of the box. Far enough into the future. Beyond the walls of their own church. Things like that.

The dictionary definition of short-sightedness is something along the lines of the inability to see things clearly unless they are relatively close to the eyes; nearsightedness.

That’s a problem I don’t have. Haven’t had for twenty years. That’s after my arms weren’t long enough to hold things far enough away for me to read them.

So if that’s what this was about, I can rest easy. No way I’m that kind of short-sighted.

But then, that’s not what this is about.

It’s also not about “going with the flow”. Unless that “flow” is from God, not necessarily from the majority of people in the church.

It’s about following the Holy Spirit.

Short-sighted Christians might not go where God wants us to go.

This short-sightedness is something I feel like God Himself has told me to watch out for. Being too stubborn. Not a good thing.

Of course, it can be a fine line between being too stubborn and being too willing to go wherever the wind blows.

So let’s see what Jesus said about the wind and the Holy Spirit. Yes, He actually did talk about both of them. I the same passage even. Of course, we remember the passage for another reason.

See how quickly you recognize this one. It’s got probably the best known single verse in the Bible. But not so much remembered for much of the rest of the passage.

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Conclusion – Do short-sighted Christians make you want to avoid church?

When our desires for our lives align with God’s then it’s impossible to be short sighted. God already knows The End. And that means something that’s pretty much impossible for us to understand.

Ay any/every moment, God knows all about everything. Everything that has passed. And everything that’s happening at that moment. As soon as we even think about a moment, any moment, that moment’s gone. But God is outside of time. He created time. He was before time existed. And will still be after time, as we know it, ceases to exist.

And so, something else happens. God has a pan for our lives. One that we’re free to ignore. But when we do ignore it, we’re always short-sighted, at least compared to His plan. However, any time we’re ready, God is also ready and capable of bringing us on board with His plan. And from that moment forward, we can, as close as we can follow the Holy Spirit guiding us on His path, live that life to the full Jesus promised.

And do you know what? Other people can’t stop us from living that best possible life God has for us. Because He knows what everyone else is doing too. And e takes that into account. Where we are is part of God’s plan. If God wants us someplace else He’ll let us know. But He may also have plans for wherever we’ve brought ourselves to while we were doing our own thing.

So ultimately, there’s no reason for us to allow anyone else to thwart our plan, if it matches God’s plan. The only one that prevent God’s plan for us from working out is, well, the person we see when we look in the mirror.

If short-sighted people are in the way of God’s plans, He’ll deal with it, one way or another. Maybe that means we go somewhere else. But maybe it doesn’t. It certainly does not mean we stop going to church. It does mean we must listen for God’s Holy Spirit. And keep our eyes and hearts on the long term goal. Follow God’s path to eternity with Him.