In the balcony of the Chicago Convention Center: pencil poised,
22-year-old eyes focused on an empty screen, I wait for enlightenment.
Puzzled, I notice others scribbling notes, and squint at the speaker.
Is he, could he, be writing words that I can’t see?
The next day, I made an appointment with an optometrist.
How much had I missed in my life just because I didn’t see it?
I needed vision correction.

My daughter often tore her soft contacts taking them out of the container.
Frustrated and with limited funds, we sought enlightenment, to no avail,
Until an eye doctor asked, “What’s your shooting percentage in basketball?”
“Too low,” my embarrassed competitor muttered.
“Do you use the square on the backboard to aim, banking it off top-center?”
“I do right, every time, but it doesn’t work!”
“I’m sure you do,” he smiled. “The problem is depth perception.
“Your eyes see things differently and confuse your brain.
“Try aiming at the close corner of the square. You’ll be the team’s high scorer.”
Her look at me said it all! “See, I told you I did it right!”
Colleen retrained her brain to respond to the reality of the things she saw.
She made more baskets and tore fewer contacts.
She pursued both vision and brain correction.

It’s not only physical eyes that need correction; our spiritual modification is ongoing.
I may look and not yet see what God has placed in front of me
or reach out for something I see, only to find I’ve missed its reality.
But I don’t need to wait for an appointment or live my life with myopic deficit
Because I am in constant contact with the Healer of spiritual vision.
⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more
in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to discern what is best
and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of
righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
(Philippians 1:9-11, NIV)