Far sighted individuals can see things that are far away but need help to see the things right in front of their face. I am near sighted. I need help to see whats far away from me. Most people grow more far sighted as they age. That's why we see older people wearing bifocals. They started out near sighted and grew far sighted as they grew older. Hyperopia (Farsightedness) is becoming more common in younger and younger people. That is, more young people are having trouble seeing what right in front of their face
Sin has a multitude of definitions. I like to define it as anything that goes against your personal principles/what you say you believe in. Many people say they believe in the Bible in a literal sense, which has a llllooooonnnnggg list of principles and they sin by going against the simplest rules. In a non-religious sense, a person can sin by breaking a promise, even (and Especially) a promise made to their self. Someone who says they are all about the money but doesn't save or invest wisely, is sinning.
All of that is precursor to a brief Christian essay I read entitled Whose Mess? It talked about being Far Sighted About Sin. Specifically, the writer was cleaning up a public beach and complaining about whoever it was that left the trash in the sand. The essay referenced a story from Matthew 15 where the Pharisees were worried about the disciples washing their hands before eating. The famous quote from Jesus goes, "It's not what goes into our bodies that defiles us but what comes out." There's a deeper message there though. The Pharisees had dishonored other people's parents by insisting that they give 'The Church' its money instead of helping needy parents. As people still do, they got up in the traditions and forgot the principles that led to the traditions. It happens a lot. We start out on a journey to meet a principle and get distracted by the scenery so much that we soon forget where we were going.
And today, we live in a culture of distraction. Too many of us LOVE to watch other people's sins to make us feel better about our journey. We've even forgotten to check ourselves. Maybe we can't even see ourselves anymore because we've truly become far sighted. We have NO idea about what's gong on with us. But we know which reality star is going to jail this week... We know who shot who, who's lying, who's cheating, who's stealing... We wake up each day with 'SMH' copied so we can paste it all day as we read the news and/or comb through our friend's statuses... Those of us who are spiritual try to stop shaking our heads and now we post 'Praying For You...'... And now we wake up looking for someone to 'Pray For'... But when's the last time we checked our journey out?
Just like the Pharisees we got caught up with what's going on around us and neglected ourselves. What we say we believe in is the beginning of faith but our actions determine whether or not we still believe. Someone posted a FB status the other day about someone else posting bad news all day, everyday. There's a saying "Misery loves company." There's the tale of two wolves, one good/one evil where the one that lives is the one you feed. What are you feeding by feasting on the sins of other people each and every day? How do you expect your soul/spirit to grow strong off neglect and misery?
At some point we begin to internalize the sin of others. Perhaps we had some imperfections before we lost our focus on self improvement. Either way, or simultaneously, our paradigm will shift. Our actions will stop reflecting the priorities we claimed, if they ever did. The sin we drank of others and the neglect of our own souls will begin to come out of our pores through our actions. A little vanity here and there since we love to look at others and say "I'm not THAT bad..." There's nothing harder than self improvement when you are surrounded by poor behavior. There's little motivation to improve, if you seem to be doing the best among your peer group. Remember, the best house in a bad neighborhood is a bad investment.
No matter what we say we believe in, our challenge is to get better every day. When we become far sighted about sin, distracted by the sin of others, we cease to challenge ourselves. And we get away with it. We point to all the crap we see in the outside world and say, "See! At least I'm not like that." We don't discipline our children but at least we don't abuse them. Men talk down to the women in their lives but at least they don't beat them. Or they beat them and it's OK because we haven't killed them, yet. We don't step it up in church because the pastor is cheating on the first lady. Or, we don't go to church at all because we're better than those church people. Or we don't believe anymore because we're good people anyway. But eventually, instead of becoming better people, we become good enough people. Plus, those stupid Christians keep shooting up churches/bombing abortion clinics/hanging Black people/beating up gays/Muslims. We don't do any of that so...
If you want to be spiritual (no church, no organized religion) it is certainly possible to connect/commune with God and become a spirit, that is to become a better person. It is also highly unlikely. As often as followers of organized religion fail to it's less likely to happen than it would be if you chose to use an established framework. The key is to remember that it's just a framework. And all institutions have become corrupt. The solution is not to abandon everything but to build/rebuild better frameworks. If a church is corrupt, start a new one or fix the one you're in. There's no excuse to do nothing.
No matter what your paradigm is, a positive outlook requires you to be good and get better every day. If you aren't doing that, you're sinning. Even in organized religion, the listed of sins are just details of what a lack of growth looks like. We've become so focused ont he details that we forgot we were supposed to be growing. Be careful of becoming far sighted. Keep growing. Keep learning.
Life is good. I'm sharing it with the world. So this is life the way I see it...
