Before LASIK surgery at age forty, severe nearsightedness blinded my vision without corrective lenses. I only saw an advantage to this condition at Christmas when the tree went up with its strings of colorful bulbs. Without vision aids at night, the lights on the tree appeared as fuzzy orbs, blending together in a dazzling display of color. To be honest, I was hypnotized by it.
Yet my distorted vision kept me from seeing more extraordinary treasures around the tree. With my lenses in place, I discovered ornaments friends and family had given us, invoking dear memories of people I loved. I found ornaments my husband and I had collected from places we’d visited around the world, summoning fond remembrances of our years together. I observed the Christ child in the manager, centering my focus on the truth of Christmas. Letting go of my distorted vision and putting on my lenses showed me the beauty, wonder, and joy beyond the fuzzy orbs.
Like my blurred vision, writers of faith can be hypnotized by the fuzzy things of this temporal world, but those things are mere shadows or distortions of the extravagance God has lavished on us in Christ. Donning our corrective lenses allows us to view our writing journey in perspective. First and foremost, corrective lenses enable us to see the light of God’s promise of true joy today as well as the astonishing beauty and wonder of the future to come even if our journey as writers contains bumps in the road along the way.
Then we understand that what we write doesn’t merely revolve around our own little worlds but requires us to reach beyond to something more extraordinary. We demand more of ourselves by continually honing our craft, accepting constructive criticism, and throwing away the chaff. We search for unique ways to tell our stories and entice our audience to embark on the journey of discovery with us. We dare to embrace the world of marketing our work in spite of timidity and self-consciousness. Yet we adjure ourselves to forgo foolish pride and go about the journey in humility and faith.
Only by letting go of our distorted vision can we experience the treasures beyond the world of the fuzzy orbs. I invite you to fix your eyes on the prize that is set before you as you experience the world beyond the fuzzy orbs.
Post Script: I also invite you to visit my updated website at www.donnawichelman.com/books to get a preview of my newest book, Undaunted Valor.
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