20/20 C'est fou? C'est flou? C'est clair? Finding clarity...

Unfamiliar landmarks unfurled, disjointed and jarring, as we traversed the deeply rutted roads in our boxy blue Nissan Patrol. We had only been in the country for about a week. We were driving in our new-to-us 4x4 following behind new friends when I realized the foreign fog that enveloped everything around us had penetrated within as well - my mind had been infiltrated. I didn't feel like myself. It seemed I had lost even my internal bearings. It was like I had put on someone else's glasses and the prescription was way off.

A few years later I was part of a mobil medical caravan with my Gabonese and American friends.  Our combo medical/non-medical volunteer team had set up an outreach clinic in an open-air church building just outside of Libreville. My dear friend Leanne was put in charge of doing basic vision tests. That day as I walked by her area I couldn't help but notice Leanne pointing to an eye chart symbol and asking an older Papa in French if the symbol was "fou." "C'est fou?" she asked and the Papa said nothing. He seemed flummoxed. She asked again, only louder (thinking maybe he was hard of hearing) "C'est fou?!" Still the Papa remained in a quizzical silence. I asked Leanne what she was trying to communicate and she quickly responded in English, "I'm asking him if the symbol is blurry." "Oh, I see, I think you have mixed up your French vocabulary words "flou" and "fou." She immediately realized her mistake. The word "fou" means crazy and the word "flou" means blurry. She had been, very clearly and with increasing volume, repeatedly asking the Papa if the symbol was crazy! The uncomfortable tension of misunderstanding dissolved into relieved laughter by all - the Papa, the others waiting for their eye test, Leanne and myself. Oh the occasional hilarious absurdity of communicating in a foreign language.

Many people have an unfortunate vision condition called myopia, aka - nearsightedness. Myopia simply means one can see things up close but as distance increases visual clarity or acuity decreases. Fairly recently I found out about "ortho-k" contact lenses which are worn overnight to temporarily reshape the corneas of the wearer while they sleep. In the morning the ortho-k lenses are removed and the wearer can go about their day without the need of corrective lenses. What!? How have I never heard of this before? Apparently, it's not painful and can potentially last even longer than a day. Myopia occurs when the eyeball is physically too long or the cornea is too curved. Those ortho-k lenses flatten the curve, so to speak, and voila! - clear vision! 

The thing is, the ortho-k lenses need to be worn regularly to maintain visual acuity of 20/20. We all want clear vision. My mom once mused aloud to me when back when I was a child that she was so thankful to have been born in this time and place because before the amazing invention of corrective lenses her extreme myopia would likely have landed her the title of village idiot. She went on to explain without glasses she wouldn't have been able to see the black board in school to learn how to read or follow math equations - which of course would snowball from ignorance into social isolation and poverty - she would live the remainder of her days alone wearing a dunce cap in the proverbial corner of life. Perhaps now you might have a clue as to where I get my tendency towards melodrama?! Anyway, clear vision is vital. 

This world tends towards chaos. Losing our bearings in the fog of the unfamiliar has become common for us all recently. One does not need to move to a new continent, climate, culture, country and language to experience, at least in part, the culture shock of sudden and extreme changes to daily life. We need ortho-k lenses more than ever to make sense of the destabilized blurriness of it all. This profound idea of physically reshaping our corneas to enable perfect vision translates so beautifully to our need to reshape our hearts and minds by the word of God. 

Our thoughts and feelings are so easily influenced by our surroundings. Our vision is powerfully shaped by our environment. None of us, in and of ourselves, can mitigate the impact of the corrosive atmosphere we breath in each day. There's no mask big enough or soap strong enough to combat it. I believe that is why God calls us to meet together regularly and not only to read his word but absorb it so it permeates deep within our being. His Word is like spiritual ortho-k lenses that reshapes our minds and give us clarity to pierce through the cultural fog. And like those ortho-ks we must regularly and repeatedly immerse ourselves in spiritual disciplines to maintain 20/20 visual acuity. 

Is it better here?:

Romans 12:2 (MSG) "Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Or here?:

Romans 12:2 (NIV) "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

So let's not sit in the proverbial corner of life with our spiritual dunce caps on! Let's be transformed by the renewing of our minds and development of spiritual maturity which gives clear discernment and direction of His good, pleasing and perfect will. 

C'est fou? C'est flou? C'est clair?