When I Close My Eyes

Sometimes I watch movies with my eyes closed.

No, I’m not sleeping. Truly, I’m listening – with my eyes squeezed tight. You see, my hubby and I don’t always have the same taste in cinema. While he likes zombies and realistic gruesomeness, I prefer singing and sliding down rainbows. My version of scary is in the opening credits of Little House when Laura and Carrie are skipping down the hill of daisies, and Carrie trips and falls. I gasp every time. I’m thinking sprained ankles, scratched knees, and grass stains. Scary stuff.

So when my honey and I watch TV, I often turn my head and close my eyes at the bad parts. I’d prefer not to look.

I’ve never felt bad about it. It’s just how I roll.

But recently God has been whispering to me. “Carol, are you closing your eyes?”

And my answer is yes. There are things in life I’d rather not see. If I don’t see them, they don’t seem real. They aren’t so scary.

I’d prefer to close my eyes to young girls being trafficked for sex. I turned my head away from the estimated 643,067 people who experienced homelessness in the U.S. last year. I hum quietly to myself when I hear talk of the MILLIONS of people who starve to DEATH each year. And I’m squeezing my peeps tight to the 163,000,000 orphans who need a mommy to wipe their tears and kiss their boo-boos.

But closing my eyes doesn’t change the facts. All of these things exist. If I acknowledge them and do nothing, well – I’d prefer to close my eyes to that, too.

If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:17 NIV

Now what?

Edward Everett Hale shared this wisdom.

“I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”

So, what’s the one thing I can do? Well, for starters I can open my eyes.

Are you with me? Leave me a comment simply stating, “I’m opening my eyes.” Then join me tomorrow as I open my eyes to orphans.