The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness. Matthew 6:22-23
Is this speaking to the physical eye or perhaps what Jesus is teaching here is the way we see, and from what perspective we look.
As we worked in the love, sexuality and intimacy class this week we took an entirely unique approach to the popular class. Instead of doing clearing on anatomy and how well everything functions in the body, we took on clearing how we draw love to us and how our perspective taints or makes clear everything in our life.
If for example we are in resentment, pain, blame from a former or current love, this becomes the filter through which we see and also what we draw to us.
I used to think we didn’t need forgiveness if we knew everyone was doing what they could in the moment to survive and we could understand it didn’t match what I needed, so that was that and time to move on. But if forgiveness never happens the lens of maybe betrayal or hurt will be the lens we see through in all areas of relationship.
Now taking the verse above, if the lens of our view is covered in darkness, a dark emotion, it darkens our perspective and our thoughts and mind. If you are looking not through the eyes of love, even though that is your intent, but through a darkened lens of betrayal, what you will see and what you will find are betrayals and darkness coming to you.
Imagine all the hurts, betrayals, disappointments mounting up as one filter on top of another till the lens you are attempting to look through is entirely darkened. You are meant to experience light, but the light you are experiencing is almost fully dark.
As you take in light through a darkened lens Jesus teaches the light (God) in you isn’t getting in, all that is there is darkness. You are not letting God in when filtering through one or many dark emotions.
God is light and in Him is no darkness.
What we dwell on becomes our reality.
If I do not forgive him for raping me and leaving me for dead the only person who suffers is the one who doesn’t forgive. The rapist will not feel the lack of forgiveness, they move on. Who feels it is the one who lives all the days remembering a wrong done, always being the victim, never free to return to the light.
Do not dwell on or remember the former things, nor consider things of old. Behold I shall do a new thing, now it shall spring forth. Isaiah 43:18-19
When I was brutally raped on Thanksgiving Day many years ago I needed to heal from this, but the expert, a therapist who dealt day in and day out with sexual violence, told me you may never forgive him. The detectives did a sting operation. I was given governmental assistance if I wanted it to move to a new location.
What no one back then seemed to be able to counsel me on was how to step into forgiveness and let God spring forth a new thing, a new work in my life.
From this perspective nothing is so big you could not forgive, for the promise when forgiveness is implemented is grace and a new fresh perspective, looking through the eyes of love once more.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. We receive forgiveness as we forgive and become more God like, more God aligned in the process of clearing away what is old and moving forward, questing for the joy and love that is ours by divine right as a child and chosen of God.
