What you looking at?!

Ever stopped to grab a quite bite to eat at lunch and forgot to nix the onions?  Worse yet, ever grab some chips with garlic and smash them down and then head into a close-quarters meeting where you knew everyone sharing the same air was being politely disgusted by your breath?  What about the classic “is-it-just-me-or-does-anyone-else-notice-I-forgot-to-brush-my-teeth-today”?

Maybe halitosis is to blame, but odds are you should have nixed the onions.

See, what you eat is evidenced by the odor of your breath.  Same goes for what you listen to.  I couldn’t stand it when my mom would say “You can’t listen to that music, it changes the way you talk to me!”  I would always argue that ‘music doesn’t effect me!’.  Clearly, science proves me wrong.  The more I read books on new models of business, the more I want to start my own company.  The more I listen to people talk about this-or-that new TV series, the more I want to watch it.  The more I listen to people talk about their big houses, fancy dinner outings, new clothes, latest gadget or popular media trend… the more I become drawn to think I need those things for myself.  The more I feast on the idea of those things, the more I crave having them.

So, it should be no surprise that they eyes work the same way.  What are you looking at?

The Word of God is unmistakably clear: you become like what you gaze on…for better or for worse.  What an amazing nugget of wisdom for the believer!

The more I feast on the idea of those things, the more I crave having them.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate (gaze, see as in a mirror, reflect) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Remember when you were car searching, and the more you honed in on the one car you wanted, the more you wanted it?  The more you feast on illicit images and videos, the more you become like them in your thinking! Praise God that the more you become fixated on the Author and Perfector of our Faith, the more you become like Him!  It really is a mystery in the realm of the spiritual world that what we fix our eyes on, we begin to transform into.

Some are offended at the advice of those who would say “Have nothing to do with fornicators, sexually permissive, identity-confused, adulterers, or liars….it will keep you from becoming like them!”  Now before you toss out some ‘Jesus-hung-with-sinners’ and ‘Jesus-says-love-your-neighbor’ and other very true-in-context one liners, consider what I am saying (and not saying).

There is a season for everything.  Wisdom is discerning what season you are in.  I am not saying that we are not to love those who are lost in their own ways of sin and confusion, but I am suggesting you use discernment.  In the same way that you would readily agree that it would not be healthy to veg in front of your TV and watch the aforementioned lifestyles being played out in HD in your living room for hours on end (or at all, for that matter), in many ways the same effect is happening when we innocently or ignorantly ‘veg out’ with those unashamedly practicing ungodliness.  So yes, there is a season that it is wise for you to not hang with those who are themselves enslaved and practicing ungodliness.  It is for your protection and the fulfillment of your destiny.  What some my mock you for and call you ‘unloving’ is in fact the wisdom of the narrow road.

There is a season for everything.  Wisdom is discerning what season you are in.

Psalms 1:1

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

I think some of us are like naive motorcycle riders who ride with their mouths open and simply catch whatever flies by.  Don’t laugh – as a foolish moped rider, I learned that lesson the hard way as I took a quick grocery run at dusk one night along a stream-lined road.  Many a bug lost their lives that night.  So, I ask you again to consider what you are looking at.

There is a simple truth in this season for you: whatever you spend more time gazing on will be that which you begin to look like.  It is not a matter of figuring yourself out.  It is a matter of “fixing our eyes on Jesus” and letting him do the perfecting of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).  Don’t think that you are immune to this.  And do not over complicate it!   Just sit at His feet, enjoy His presence and draw near until you are close enough to feel His breath. He truly desires that encounter and promises to draw near to you as you draw near to Him.

Who are you looking at?