Spotlight 16/2020: Allow your eyes to be opened!

When we started this year, 2020, no one could have predicted all the severe circumstances that would occur. No one could have known how appropriate and important our focus of “Christ makes free” would be. That is, no one except our heavenly Father.

At the beginning of the year, the Chief Apostle mentioned that “the Spirit teaches us to love according to the example of Jesus, without prejudice and without regard for that which is said around us”. Part of learning to love as Jesus loves is that we must see ourselves as we truly are. The Holy Spirit can help us recognise conditions that limit our ability to grow in the nature of Jesus.

Spiritual blindness is one of these conditions. One can be blind to the need of one’s neighbour, blind to his suffering, blind to the fact that he or she has been marginalised or discriminated against. Christ can free us from this blindness.

This condition may be the result of one’s being preoccupied with the cares of life. It may stem from the views of others around us in society, which, without our being aware of it, “stick” to us. The result can be that we do not even realise that we are blind and that our ability to love our neighbour is severely limited because we do not recognise his or her need.

Wonderfully, Christ can free us from this blindness. When Jesus Christ becomes the model for our life and for our thinking, our eyes are opened. We are no longer limited by our own, personal perspective or that of those around us. Our eyes are opened to see our neighbour, who before was invisible to us. We can recognise his need, and not be limited by judgmental, human thinking. Rather we can see past the exterior and see more like Christ sees: a soul who longs to be loved without prejudice or discrimination.

Photo: Oliver Rütten; District Apostle Leonard R. Kolb (left) in conversation with District Apostle Helper John Fendt (right)