Spiritual eyes

Wake up and open your eyes!

When I started this substack, my stated aim was to write with a view to seeking wisdom, truth and beauty. In this endeavour I think we need to have our spiritual eyes open, and it is only then that we are able to see the good fruit as well as the hidden dangers. In fact, if we fail to recognise the dangers we can be left extremely vulnerable.

In the case of wisdom, we must learn to recognise folly, ignorance and blind acceptance of ‘the way things are’. We must be prepared to question, to seek knowledge and listen to the voices of people with nothing to gain, and perhaps much to lose. Just because the society around us accepts something, or the mainstream media says something, or a particular ‘expert’ asserts something, it doesn’t automatically mean it is wise, or even true. When we open our spiritual eyes we can learn to recognise wisdom and listen to wise words.

In the case of truth, we must learn to recognise lies and deceptions, so we can discern and follow the truth. Our society is riddled with harmful deceit which is designed to lure us away from truth and goodness. For example, the lie that the pursuit of money and fame leads to happiness, or the lie that you can choose your gender or sexuality, or the lie that there is no God so you can pursue your own ‘truth’. When we open our spiritual eyes we can learn to recognise truth and reject the counterfeit.

In the case of beauty, we must learn to recognise what is ugly, vulgar and dark, so that we are better able to open our eyes to appreciate beauty, goodness and light. So many things in our ‘progressive’ western society seem to be ugly, corrupted, twisted and dark: buildings, music, art, ideologies, media, literature … and deliberately so. The devil cannot create, so he corrupts and turns what could be beautiful and good into something vile and destructive. It is no coincidence that much of this is aimed at the young. When we open our spiritual eyes we can learn to recognise beauty and goodness and to treasure and value such things.

In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul says:

…whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

We must be alert to the schemes of the enemy, who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, and who will endeavour to rob us of all that is good and true and beautiful. Wake up! Open your eyes!