2020 Vision and Surround Sound Promises

When the calendar flipped over from 2019 to 2020, conversations everywhere sprang up with an emphasis on a new outlook, a new focus and 20/20 vision. As a functionally blind person all this talk has renewed in me memories of God’s faithfulness.

I remember the doctor’s words as if they were spoken yesterday.

 “You have the retinas of an 80-year-old.”

This was not exactly what I wanted to hear, nor was it what I had expected. In my twenties at the time, I felt too young to have aged retinas.  

I left the eye doctor’s office thinking about my 80-year-old retinas and lamented,” Why couldn’t I have the wisdom of an 80-year-old, or the nest egg of one who had invested in Apple when it was little more than a piece of fruit?”

 Instead, I had diseased-damaged retinas and an appointment to see a specialist.

A couple of weeks later, I went to that appointment and my 80-year-old retinas endured a day of drops, charts and tests. Fully examined and exhausted, my retinas felt more like one-hundred and eighty- something, than twenty-something! After his assessment, the little retina specialist wearing a stiffly-starched lab coat, stiffly gave me the news. In short Twitter-esk phrases his words fell hard and I felt like I’d been pushed into a dark hole.

“You have retinitis pigmentosa…There is no treatment, no cure…You will most likely be blind someday…”

The doctor’s words replayed in my mind day after day. I fell more deeply into a black hole with the doctor’s pronouncements playing in surround-sound and reverberating off the walls. The accompanying fears and feelings were at times overwhelming.

This went on for longer than I care to admit. I often thought, “For goodness sake, get a grip. Where is your faith anyway?”

I continued going to church, reading my Bible and praying. I practiced my faith even when I felt I had very little to practice.

Eventually and finally, God’s love broke through.

It took time (lots and lots of time) but over time, the doctor’s words began to fade and God’s Word began to break through the darkness until His voice became the loudest in my mind. He began to offset everything the doctor said. Eventually the prediction of blindness paled in comparison to the Promises found in the Bible.

When I stopped rehearsing what the doctor said and embraced what God said instead, The Word broke through with a brightness that lights my life even today.

The doctor said: You’ll be blind someday.

God says: he who follows Jesus “will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

The doctor said: Move to a city with a good bus line or you’ll be alone and isolated.

 God says:  "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

The doctor said: Your situation is hopeless.

God says: Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

The doctor said: Your life is over.

 God says:” …no mind can conceive what God has planned for those who love Him.”

The doctor said: Physical sight is everything.

God says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The doctor said: Sit on the sidelines and let life pass you by.

God says: “Come on up out of the boat. It’s time to walk on water.”

Are you sinking fast into a dark hole? Have the words of a doctor left you reeling? The words of a trusted friend, family member or co-worker injured you in some way? Do you feel like you are dying from a thousand little word paper cuts? If so, turn to God, flip through the pages of His trusted Word, and rehearse what it is He says. Let His promises play in surround-sound in the walls of your mind until all other words pale in comparison.