20-20 Vision

I see what I expect to see.  It happens in my writing all the time.  I try to edit and revise. I read things over a zillion times, and still I completely miss glaring errors right in front of my nose.

Research confirms that the see-what-you-expect-to-see phenomenon occurs in medical labs too.  People examining slides of tissue from biopsies see many more samples of healthy tissue than of diseased tissue.  After a while they tend to see only healthy tissue, even when the slide contains some cancer cells.

The same thing happens in my relationship with God.  

I pray and people I love continue to suffer.  I get tired of waiting for God to act.  Secretly I doubt.  I wonder if He has abandoned us. Sometimes I even wonder if He is there at all. I see only what I expect to see.

This kind of blindness occurs frequently to people in the Bible.  I love the story of bad eyesight found in 2 Kings 6.  Elisha the prophet, seems to enjoy interfering with Syria's plans to to wipe out Israel.  Elisha always knows what Ben-hadad, king of Syria is doing before he does it.  He is in the habit of letting the king of Israel know when and where Ben-hadad is going to launch his next 'surprise' attack.  Repeatedly the Syrian army charges onto a battle field, only to discover that Israel's army has moved on.  Tired of looking stupid, he assembles his officers, and demands to know which of them is a spy.  Fearing for their lives, they plead innocence and redirect the king's anger toward Elisha. 

The scene now changes to Elisha's home in the village of Dothan.  As the sun is just coming up over the horizon in the east, Elisha's servant Gehazi, heads outside and stops dead in his tracks. An entire army surrounds their little hillside village.  
He dashes to Elisha in panic, and pleads, "What are we going to do?" 
I imagine Elisha calmly taking another bite of his bacon and eggs before he answers. 
"Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 
Before Gehazi can respectfully suggest that his master has lost his mind, Elisha asks God to open the servant's eyes.  For Gehazi peeking cautiously out from behind the curtain, the situation now appears to be entirely reversed. Elisha's home is surrounded by a second army.  It is comprised of intimidating chariots of fire facing down the Syrians. They seem far less frightening by contrast.

Elisha calmly takes one last sip of coffee, and prays for his enemies to be struck with blindness.  Then he goes out and informs the commanders of the Syrian army that they are lost.  He offers to take them to "the man you seek", and leads them all the way to Samaria.  The Syrians never dared to raid Israel again.

Wouldn't it be great if we could pray and suddenly be able to see the forces of good fighting for us the way Elisha could?  Maybe we can.  We can pray for 20-20 spiritual vision, and ears to hear, "Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."