20/20 Vision in 2021

January 3, 2021

 (These are Pastor Rob's notes and not a transcript of the message.)

In the first couple weeks of the pandemic, we’d sit in our staff meetings at church and wonder how things would change if it lasted 8-9 weeks…and here we are more than 9 months later!

 Last week, I told you about my first 3 messages during this pandemic:

1. obstacles are opportunities
2. we didn’t choose this but were chosen for it
3. times of adjustment = times of assessment

A new year is a natural time to look both backward and forward

• It’s interesting that we’re looking back on 2020.
• Before this experience, 20/20 meant something different, something positive.
  • We know the phrase 20/20 vision, but what does it mean?
    • 1^st number is distance from the chart
    • 2^nd number is distance from which a person with normal vision can read the same line.
  • 20/20 vision ≠ perfect vision
  • 20/20 vision = normal vision
  • Only about 35% of adults have 20/20 vision without glasses, contacts, or surgery.
  • With correction, about 75% have normal vision.
  • People can have vision that is either better or worse than normal.
    • g., 20/15 vision = being able to see from 20 feet what a person with normal vision can see from 15 feet.
    • g., 20/40 vision = being able to see from 20 feet what a person with average vision can see from 40 feet.

Didn’t know you were signing up for that kind of lesson today, did you?

Let’s take the idea of 20/20 vision (normal vision) and talk about our lives outside the realm of optometry and physical vision.

For our purposes today, 20/20 vision = seeing all of life from God’s perspective. When I say that…

• Immediately, we understand that we don’t have normal vision because we’re not God.
• Immediately, we understand that corrective measures need to be taken.
  • For those of you like me who have 20/20 vision because of glasses, contacts, or surgery, do you remember what it was like to see more clearly that you’d been seeing?
  • For me, it was in the 11^th
    • I’d never been to the eye doctor before and didn’t really know there was anything wrong with my eyes.
    • When I looked through lenses during the eye exam, I was dumbfounded at the difference!
    • Not only could I read more of the eye chart, but everything was clearer than it was without the lenses.
  • That’s what it’s like when we begin to look at life through the corrective lens of Scripture—when we begin to see things from God’s perspective.
    • We don’t really understand there’s anything wrong with the way we see life.
    • But when our flawed vision is corrected, we are dumbfounded at the difference!
    • Not only can we read more of life, but everything is clearer than it was without the lens of Scripture.
  • For those of you like me, who aren’t God, can you remember what it was like when you began to see more clearly than you’ve ever seen before?

As I look back on 2020, the word that comes to find is adversity. Now, let’s look back on the adversity of 2020 through the lens of Scripture. What can we learn?

1. Adversity shows us that we’re not in control and that life doesn’t revolve around our plans or desires.

 James 4:13-15 (NLT) – Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

Remember how Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” (Matthew 6:10).

2. Adversity confirms that God’s ways don’t always make sense to us.

 Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) – My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Isaiah wrote before and after the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. God allowed tragedy but had a plan to redeem it.

 Romans 8:35, 37-38 (NLT) – Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? … No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

3. Adversity reveals a great deal about us.

We learn about our struggles and our hope. We can own our struggles and be sure about our hope. Adversity reveals our …

• strengths
• weaknesses
• hopes
• fears
• stubbornness
• prejudices
• biases
• character
• beliefs
• doubts

 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, 16-18 (NIV) – We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed…. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

4. Adversity is good soil for pruning and growth (individually and corporately).

Isaiah 30:19-23 (NLT)

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem,
    you will weep no more.
He will be gracious if you ask for help.
    He will surely respond to the sound of your cries.
Though the Lord gave you adversity for food
    and suffering for drink,
he will still be with you to teach you.
    You will see your teacher with your own eyes.
Your own ears will hear him.
    Right behind you a voice will say,
“This is the way you should go,”
    whether to the right or to the left.
Then you will destroy all your silver idols
    and your precious gold images.
You will throw them out like filthy rags,
    saying to them, “Good riddance!”

Then the Lord will bless you with rain at planting time. There will be wonderful harvests and plenty of pastureland for your livestock.

Remember what I said about Isaiah? He wrote before and after the fall of Judah. Here, he writes about God’s promise of better days.

So what?

The new year is a natural time for reflection. Honestly, though, most of us are better at reacting than reflecting.

• Reacting is instantaneous and often a vehicle of expressing our emotions of the moment—positive or negative.
• Reflecting requires questions and introspection and is time-intensive

 Here are a few ideas to help you reflect on the experience of 2020 and ask God to help you have 20/20 vision—to see from his perspective—as we head into 2021 and beyond. (Also be sure to check out the notes for today’s message.)

• Begin each day with the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father) and linger over “your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
• Ask God to help you understand how he wants to work in you, your family, and your church.
• Ask God to help you know yourself better than you think you do.
• Ask God what’s been removed from your life that doesn’t need to be replanted.