Have Your Eyes Adjusted?

My wife and I went this past Sunday to check out a worship service at a Lifechurch that has just been planted in our neighborhood. It was quite an experience. During the sermon on Determining God's Will I was struck by something that was said by the pastor. I'll paraphrase it here:

You know when you walk into a crowded movie theater late and the previews are already showing? You are looking to try and find a seat and, at first, you can't see anything save maybe a few blurry heads bobbing in the rows. You definitely can't see enough to find the empty seats you need. But what happens? After a few minutes things become clearer and more focused. Your eyes adjust to the darkness and you are able to see some unoccupied chairs to relax in during the show.

Our heart behaves the same way. At first being outside the moral will of God seems foreign and hard to navigate. We stand dumbfounded at the bottom of the wasteland looking confused and feeling uncomfortable. After a while though, as we spend more time apart from Him and the things He desires for us, things start to become more comfortable. Our heart begins to adjust to its new environment, however dangerous and ghastly it may have first appeared. Soon we can nonchalantly go about our normal lives with little regard to how we are behaving and what consequences are actions have for ourselves and those around us. Our heart adjusts to the darkness until living there can seem as natural as if we were living in the Light. It is in this place, where we cannot see our own selfish desires and desparate need, that the guidance of the Holy Spirit and fellow believers is essential to spur us to open our eyes again to where we have wandered.

~RG