I was always proud of the fact that I was the only person in my family that didn’t need glasses;    

I had 20/15 vision in High School!!                                                                                        

 Then I received the highest honor from the DMV for my 45^th birthday…

• A big #1 on my driver’s license (corrective lenses requires)

I just couldn’t get all those little signs right… It turns out that over the years, I had become a little nearsighted.  No problem seeing things up close, but things at a distance had become a little fuzzy. So, as much as I didn’t like it, I got glasses (some pretty cool Ray-Ban’s at that!!).   

It turns out that nearsightedness is a very common problem in more ways than one…            

Even in Ministry…

The Bible uses an analogy of the church as many parts of one body, where no one part is more important than any other. But sometimes, the eyes think they’re more important than the toes and the hands think they’re more important than the armpits…                                                         

This is a big world that we live in with many different needs, and God has called many different people with very diverse ministries and gifts to meet all of them.

But sometimes, we can become spiritually nearsighted and start believing that our individual part is more important than anyone else.

• Pastors thinking people need to quit outreach programs on Sunday’s so they can be in church…
• Outreach ministries arguing about pastors staying “in the box” instead of going into the world…
• Youth leaders think taking teens to a youth conference is more important than a senior outing…
• Worship Leaders thinking praise and worship should last an hour and preaching should be over in 15 minutes
• Evangelist thinking every church should cancel their service to come to their revival…

I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind!!!!

It’s not too hard to see, when you put on those glasses where you can clearly see the whole picture.

• The pastors need the outreach ministries to send people to the local church, just like the outreach ministries need a place to send them for discipleship
• Youth ministries can learn so much from seniors, and this helps the seniors find purpose in the church
• I think Praise and Worship should last an hour!!! (But I get equal time!!)
• And yes, we need to support evangelist because we do need to see a Spirit of Revival sweep through these lands!!!