Do You Have 20/25 Vision?

“Do you have 20/20 Vision?” This was a question that I asked five years ago at the beginning of the year 2020. It is hard to believe that five years have passed and what a five years it has been! This was right before the Covid pandemic hit in force around the world and here in our own nation. So many plans had been made and so many new plans and inovations would have to be adjusted to accomodate this world changing event.

The question was valid though as 20/20 vision is considered perfect seeing. I was (cleverly, or so I thought) making a play on words based on the fact that it was the year 2020, and we were beginning to lay out what we hoped was a vision for the church moving into the new year and decade. The Lord definitely had a different vision and direction for us.

Now that the year is 2025, I have thought about our own sight and vision once again. What does it mean to have 20/25 vision? Well, this time the numbers don’t add up to a positive thing. To have 20/25 vision means that you have to be closer to something, say at 20 feet, compared to another person who can see the same object at a distance of 25 feet. So while the numbers do not add up to as quite a clever double meaning, as I have thought a little more on this, maybe they do.

Over the past five years I hope that you have indeed grown closer to the Lord. Maybe it has been through the difficulties of the Pandemic or through your own physical ailments. Maybe you have discovered that to know Him and grow in Him you have had to be moving toward Him- getting even closer. Maybe you have grown and the distance between you has shrunk. Time in the Word and/or a deeper prayer life have been benefits and causes of this growing closeness, perhaps. Maybe though, you are one who feels further away from the Lord due to these last five years, many of the same factors playing into this. You feel further away and a more desperate need to grow close to Him again. Some feel further away, while others feel closer to Him.

Whether you feel closer or further away, maybe having 20/25 Vision in the new year is all about knowing and growing closer to the Lord, as both our Savior and Lord. Maybe you need to walk closer to Jesus because to see and know Him better you must follow Him more closely than last year. Maybe to continue to know Him more deeply you still need to stand and walk next to Him, shrinking the distance in your heart and life, as you began to do this past year. Either way to have perfect spiritual vision doesn’t mean 20/20 but 20/25. It means to recognize your weakness and strive to walk more closely to our Lord.

I pray that the New Year brings renewed physical strength and happiness. Even more I pray that we all will have 20/25 Vision, a sight that is weak on its own and dependent on a closer walk with the Lord. May you see even more clearly this coming year- as you depend on Jesus Christ to give your sight and spiritual health.