Seeing with New Eyes: Embracing Light and Love

The eye is generally speaking the way that we become aware of things it's what I notice it's what I'm able to pay attention to and therefore what I will do will be informed will be guided by what it is that I'm noticing so you might think now about about your awareness what am I paying attention to what am I missing [00:01:12]

Morality moving towards or away from goodness is not something that happens in isolated occasions I liar I doubt I steal or I doubt it's actually uh a deep part of how we see our life and particularly other people all the time there is a moral Dimension to it where I am seeing people truly and um willing they're good and wanting to help them [00:02:17]

When he wants money from his father and he goes away to throw it away how does he think of about his dad he thinks about his dad as somebody who's probably severe uh probably doesn't get it an obstacle that's basically in his way that's holding on to the money that he wants that he thinks he has a right to [00:03:23]

All of a sudden the prodigal son comes to his senses and then he sees his father totally differently and he wants to go out to and say father I have sinned against you and against heaven or we might think about the story of the Good Samaritan where the priest and the levite and the Good Samaritan all in one sense see exactly the same thing [00:04:08]

The love of God will cause us to see will cause us to pay attention to things in a different way so how's your be alert to this in this moment right now God is present God is giving gifts to you and me each moment uh I I finished reading recently one of the best novels I have ever read is called jber Crow [00:05:07]

Jaber Crow learns to see with new eyes and even though his questions about God remain as he looks back on his life he can see that he was he says lucky and blessed and called called to be a barber uh and led he makes this determination is an old man he says I try not to let good things pass by unnoticed [00:06:07]

I began to seek first the kingdom of God now there again our vision your eyes look for it you might miss it be alert to this people this is chemistry this is heaven this is God it doesn't mean that you will see it all the time love how he describes this process praying is like lying awake at night afraid with your head under the cover [00:06:52]

Sometimes you just trustfully and easily pass into the other world of sleep sometimes the bird finds that what looks like an opening is an opening and it flies away sometimes the shut door opens and you go through it into the same world you were in before in which you belong as you did not belong before [00:07:42]

He writes that his mistake before was not in having questions those are part of life he says my mistake was ignoring all those verses that say God loves the world and he begins to see it and towards the very end of the book love these words he says this is a book about heaven now it's a very ordinary very Earthbound very human book [00:08:09]

Try not to let any good thing go unnoticed this is simply being grateful uh in all circumstances in creation for the sun com up today for a tree for a blade of grass for a barking dog for a flower for a leaf for food for your body for your mind if it's working anywhere near right for clothes on your back for shoes on your feet [00:09:19]

Rethink reconsider look at again at every person that you see today and ask yourself what does God see when God sees this person opportunities for this happen all the time yesterday I took my car in to get it washed I had gotten a uh coupon for a free car wash but I didn't notice till I was taking it in that it had expired [00:10:01]

I just step back to think about them as not just an interruption not just an irritation this is somebody God loves this may be somebody uh whose character is way more honest way more glorious contains way more Heaven than I do than mine does be alert to this people this is chemistry this is a book about heaven [00:11:03]