The Generous Eye
December 11, 2006
Dear Friends,
The reason that lepers often lose fingers, hands and toes is not, as is often put forth, because the disease eats these extremities away. Lepers lose these body parts because the disease kills their nerve endings. When they injure their body parts by touching something hot, for example, they don’t feel anything. The reflex to pull the hand or foot back is not there thus creating the opportunity for extensive damage.
When we experience the negative emotions of hate, fear, depression, anxiety, worry and so forth, these are blessings in a manner of speaking. Like the leper, if we didn’t feel these things, we wouldn’t know that we had some spiritual work to do. The emotional pain that we feel hopefully gives us the reflex to pull back from the painful thinking that engages us.
Jesus said “The light of the body is the eye. So then, if your eye is generous, the whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is grudging, your whole body will be in the dark. If, then, the light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.†(Matt. 6:22, 23 William Barclay) This translation by the commentator William Barclay strikes at the heart of the passage. We are either generous or stingy with the truth that we allow in our lives. Jesus is talking about how our mind’s eye filters light or truth coming into our mind. We can dispel the lies which filter the truth coming in or we can allow the lies to filter the truth so that we live in darkness. With few exceptions, the negative emotions that we live with are indicators of this darkness. What a blessing to feel them so that we might examine them and rid them from our lives.
Pride, hate, prejudice, lack of faith and the like are all light-blocking inhibitors in our lives. As we take in truth, we process it through these filters. Like an emaciated anorexic who looks in the mirror and still sees themselves as fat, these lies we tell ourselves distort the truth. We cannot see things as they really are. This break with reality causes us mental and emotional pain. Yet, despite this pain, most of us cling tenaciously to the lies we tell ourselves. We justify the hate and the prejudice because these people deserve it. We justify the loneliness and despair because no one cares. We justify the pride because we simply are a notch above the rest. We justify the worry because something bad could happen. The filters remain in place. The light can’t get in to dispel the gloom. We live in darkness.
When we feel these negative things, we need to search for the truth by examining the lies. What are we telling ourselves that is causing the pain? Truth is not meant here as a set of doctrines although doctrines are included in it. The truth we are talking about here is God. God is truth. God is love. When the truth is found—really found—it expresses itself in love because that is what God is.
Jesus makes an ironic comment in the above quote. He says “If, then, the light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness.†Darkness is the absence of light. How can light be darkness? It is a contradiction. It seems that Jesus is prodding the self-deceived; those who think they are full of light yet are eaten up with fleshly thinking and thus remain in darkness. Jesus makes numerous references to the Pharisees as blind. These men thought they knew the truth, but they were hateful, mean, sneaky, self-righteous, prejudiced, and angry. The love of God seldom, if ever, shows in their lives. The darkness was so great in these self-deceived men that they killed the son of God.
Are we generous with ourselves when it comes to the truth or are we self-deceived? The amount of love versus the amount of negative emotions we feel is the blessing of an answer to that question. There is no valid reason to go through life without this love although we will no doubt tell ourselves that there is.
“Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.†(1 John 2:8-11)
Have a great week,
If you are having difficulty understanding the source of your negative emotions and would like to discuss it, please feel free to call me at 804-378-3543. I will be glad to share with you a technique (a series of questions) to get to the heart of the issue.
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