Blind Spots

Blind spots while driving can be dangerous, sometimes fatal. You’re on the interstate traveling 70+ mph and you move your car into the left lane to pass a slower car. You check your driver’s side mirror and don’t see the oncoming semi in the lane you are entering. You hear the blast of the horn, but it’s too late. Three times the size of your car, it rear-ends you and your life changes forever. 

Today’s newest cars have what is known as Driver’s Assist, software utilizing strategically placed cameras to alert you when a car is in your blind spot. I rented a car with that recently and was amazed at the difference it made. Yet, it is up to the driver to choose to use it. It is the default setting, but the driver can turn it off if he or she wants.

All of us have spiritual blind spots as well, and thanks to the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, we can have divine assistance to protect us from being harmed. Unfortunately, we, like drivers of new cars having the Driver’s Assist feature, can choose not to use it.

I have found many blind spots over the course of my life, but unfortunately, I had them longer than I needed to. The Scriptures clearly declare that if I am in Christ, I am a child of God (John 1:12) and that I am no longer condemned (Romans 8:1-2); yet I chose for many years to feel unworthy and to condemn myself. It was a blind spot in my life. Often I had passion and zeal for truth and righteousness, but I failed to see how often these were expressed in unloving ways, ignoring Paul’s declaration that without love, we are really nothing at all and gain nothing (I Corinthians 13:2-3). 

Just as I have dealt with blind spots in my life, so I have met many others who do as well. A few years ago, a former student railed on Facebook about how she could not associate with any Trump supporters in her church because they were evil. She despised them, she said. I wrote to her in a private message and reminded her of the teachings of Jesus regarding loving our enemies and then of a sin she was currently and proudly engaged in. She wrote back a vitriolic message filled with accusations and bitterness. And then she blocked me from seeing her profile. This was a young woman I had encouraged along the way in her various pursuits, but my exposing a blind spot in her life was more than she could handle.

Another time, my wife and I were aware of a student involved in a sexual relationship with her boyfriend. We asked to meet with her and told her of our concerns. We challenged her to confess and repent before the Lord, and thankfully she did. Years later, she told us that confrontation which exposed a spiritual blind spot, changed the course of her life. 

I have also talked with pastors who have blind spots, particularly regarding the effectiveness of their ministries to young people. Many are convinced they leave their folds with strong faith. Yet, the statistics show otherwise (60-80% leave the faith by the time of their senior year in college) and my 38 years of experience working with college students tell me the same. Few have a solid grasp of what it means to follow Jesus. Most think it means to have said a prayer, to be involved in a church and/or a campus ministry and to be a good person. Many have been taught the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), but very few have any understanding as freshmen how to carry that out among their peers on campus despite being raised in the church. 

This is a blind spot that I am attempting to expose through the book I am working on and in a few months will publish. Jesus didn’t go about his ministry, nor did the early Church go about its ministry getting folks to participate in their programs. They called them into an authentic, transforming relationship with the living Lord, where the fruit of their lives was evident to all that they knew Jesus and lived their lives in submission to him.

For so many in the American church, this is an increasingly prevalent blind spot. We are content going to a church service (or watching online), seeing people we know, and then head home until we come back the next Sunday. This is normal and, as a result of the pandemic, we have been itching to get back to it. To see this routine as normal is a blind spot that needs to be exposed and removed. 

To be a follower of Jesus is not merely to attend the same gathering every week, to acknowledge certain beliefs, to give a regular tithe or offering, or to be a good person. To be a follower of Jesus is to submit our lives to him and to be committed to being his ambassadors to our fellow citizens of this world. It is to live sacrificial lives for the sake of glorifying him, to be willing to suffer and even die for our faith. It is to cast aside anger and bitterness toward those with whom we disagree, whether politically, culturally, or socially, because that is exactly what our Lord did. He loved his enemies. To follow him is to live out what he teaches us through his Word and through his Holy Spirit. 

One cannot learn how to live out these things through passive participation in programs or listening to sermons. Jesus taught, but he lived out his instructions. He taught, but he in turn showed his followers how to live out his teachings. 

The way the modern-day church does it is ineffective in making disciples. It is a blind spot. It desperately needs to be removed so we can get about the work of the Kingdom in a much more effective way. We need to be making disciples and equipping them with the tools they need to be successful ambassadors for Jesus. It can’t come soon enough.

© Jim Musser 2021 All Scripture references are from the New International Version, 2011.