So, When Jill and I were building our house in Lequire, we went to Oklahoma City to get some vinyl plank flooring for the new house. We went to 2 or 3 places looking at many styles, colors and des igns. We narrowed it down to two and made the decision on which one. I went to the register and told them our decision. They figured up how many boxes we needed and I paid for it while they got the boxes together to load on the truck.
The forklift came out bringing 31 boxes of flooring on a pallet. I dropped the tailgate so he could load the pallet in the back of the truck. Looking good I thought. Then he stopped and said, “You know, we probably should plastic wrap this on the pallet before we load it. It would ride better and not shift around.” Good idea. So, he wrapped up the pallet and put the pallet in the truck. I shut the tailgate and off we went toward home. It all looked good. Flooring was riding good…good until… I stopped at a stop light and realized I was in a left turn lane and needed to be going straight. Jill and I looked and the traffic was clear. I moved to the other lane and then it happened… wham, ker-thud and Jill saying, “STOP, STOP, WE JUST LOST THE FLOORING! I looked in my mirror while hitting the brakes and see a pile of boxes in the middle of the road. Sure enough, tailgate open, floor hanging off if it and in the street with the plastic around it. I backed up, and, after some good samaritans stopped to help, we re-loaded the truck and Jill and I were on our way, again.
It did make for a good laugh but I was just thinking to myself how this happened. I helped load the pallet and I watched the employee wrap the pallet and boxes (he must have went around it 25-30 times). It all looked secure to me.
This made me think about life in general. We are living in a new decade, 20—. 2020 is not just a year but an optical term for perfect vision; everything is clear and in focus. Some people have 20/20 vision and some wear glasses to correct their vision and make it 20/20. We can go through life with everything blurred or clear!
Even though I looked at the pallet of flooring, watched it being secured and saw it being loaded in the truck, it still came out and ended up in the middle of the street! Maybe that is because I saw, watched (sight) but didn’t really look (focus/ vision). Had I taken longer to observe closer I would have noticed the gap of about 16 inches that would allow the load to shift with quick acceleration. And, the boxes were waxed cardboard that were very slick and would slide around very easy. The plastic would only hold the boxes wrapped together in place allowing the boxes to stay together… falling out of the back of the truck and remain together sitting in the middle of the street.
Sight and vision have a lot in common but are not the same thing. Had I really looked (vision) I could have avoided the catastrophe. Instead of just looking and watching I needed take a few minutes extra and look a little harder, focus, on the loading and securing a little better.
Our spiritual life is a lot like that, too. We pray the sinner’s prayer, get baptized, go to church and Sunday school, read our Bible, tithe and pray believing that is salvation (sight). None or all of these are bad in themselves or individually. These are actually very important parts of your spiritual life, but if they are just actions with no heart, they will never be a vision. Vision is doing the following out of love, not obligation. You love God and want to be obedient to His Word and ways.
When your vision is bad (near-sighted or far-sighted) you get the corrective lenses so you can see clearly. So, if you look, really look into your life, do you need corrective lenses to help your vision of who God is, what God is about, what He wants you to do, how He wants you to do it? Best corrective lens is His Word.
Discover the difference between vision and sight by reading God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15 & 3:16) Bro. Tim
