Observational Blindness

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I learned a new term recently.  And I made up a new term as well.
The new phrase I learned is "observational blindness."  Notice how the image with this post is a picture frame with no image occupying its space.  It is simply blank, nothing to look at there!

Observational blindness occurs when there are those things that we simply cannot see because they have been in front of our faces for so long that they become invisible.  We see them . . . and yet we don't see them.  Families are full of these "things" that are right in front of us but that we fail to see!  They might include how we treat our spouse or children, how we manage our finances (or mismanage them), how we react to grief and disappointment (for instance once when something tragic happened to my husband and me, in order to assuage some of the pain we went out and bought something very expensive.  We didn't realize what we had done until much, much later and we put it together that our purchase was a reaction to the loss we experienced, rather than a purchase of something we needed or had saved to acquire.)

The church is also full of "things" that we fail to see because we are so close to the "ways" in which we function together as a community of faith.  We have a collective observational blindness and it deeply affects our mission and ministry. One of those is that we are all baptized into Christ which means we take on Christ, become his disciples, his servants in the world, his ambassadors who help, love and notice our neighbors.  It's so simple and yet so beyond our awareness--- we are so blind to it!  Which leads me to the phrase that I made up. . . sphere of influence.  (Well someone probably said it before but not in the context of being a disciple of Jesus Christ in the world.)

What is your sphere of influence?  You might quickly react to the question saying, "Influence?  I have no influence.  I'm just simple ole me, a regular kinda guy or gal."  But that's not true. . . you do have influence!  You have relationships, deep, important, thriving, wonderful relationships. . . and therefore you have influence.  So how to define your sphere of influence that has gone largely unnoticed by you all these years of being a follower of Jesus:  identify where you live, you are an influence in your neighborhood; where do you work: you come in contact with many, many people on a day to day basis; what activities are you involved in:  you mingle amongst other human beings in those realms.  Don't forget your family, your close friends, and those you worship next to each Sunday.  Open up those baby blues (or browns, or hazels, or grays, or greens) and see, really see, where God is calling you to go/be/serve/love/tend/pray/help/teach and more!  It's right in front of you!  It always has been!

amy