Which "vision" do you use most?

"Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye." (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.) Most of us need to be a little more proficient in seeing through the heart and less reliant upon what we take in through our eyes! We might just be surprised what is possible to "see" when we don't limit our "vision". Quite some time ago, a series of books came out featuring this little guy dressed in a red and white striped shirt and hat, hidden somewhere in the midst of many other people on the pages. The object of each of the books is to find Waldo amidst a plethora of other "distracting objects" and then to find some object he absent-mindedly left behind or lost in that location he has just visited. I think it may just be the illustrator of these books wanted us to focus - to train our eye to see the important thing (Waldo). Yet, our eye is drawn to all the other color, images, and "clutter" on the page. We have to work hard to see what the eye may miss, even after it has scoured the page for a long, long time! Seeing what we are "supposed to see" is okay in a game, but in real life, we want to see what we "need to see", not just what we are supposed to see.

You say to your friend, ‘Let me get that little piece of dust out of your eye.’ Why do you say this? Can’t you see that big piece of wood in your own eye? You are a hypocrite. First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to get the dust out of your friend’s eye. (Luke 6:42 ERV)

Brown also reminds us, "Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more." Part of seeing with the heart is learning to also give from the heart - to be less focused on what we get than what it is we can bring or give. We might just see a little lest "dust particles" in our relationships if we developed this ability to see what the eye does not! Wherever our focus is more on what isn't said, but what is acted out by the heart, the more we are truly beginning to understand the other individual - seeing a little more clearly how it is we can "give into" their lives. All of life is not about getting - it is most rewarding when it is about what it is we can give.

Sometimes the greatest gift we give in life is a piece of our heart. To do so means we don't have anything hindering that pathway between our heart and our actions. There is a free-flow of love, acceptance, and trust - because we don't allow that others stuff that complicates our lives to hinder that flow. Those things might be hatred, anger, bitterness, just to name a few. These things focus on what hurt or disappointed our hearts, not on what brings joy or peace to them. They keep our heart vision focused inwardly, not toward others. We justify our internally directed focus as our "right" to be hurt, angry, or bitter - because others have revealed a little bit of their heart in some action that wasn't all that good toward us. "Waldo" becomes that thing we cleverly disguise in the midst of all kinds of other cluttering things, but which "stands out" to others. To see with our hearts, we need to eliminate the thing that is obstructing our focus and keeping that pathway to giving from being "wide open". Just sayin!