When Blindness is a Choice

How it is possible to make very bad decisions that at first appear clever.

Photo by Victor Freitas on Unsplash

When the magician produces the coin out of midair, or the rabbit out of the hat, or saws the lady in half and then puts her back together to be able to walk and talk as before, they are all tricks of the eye.

They all have to do with what the audience is kept from seeing.

What appears as magic is simply perspective.

Everything looks amazing when viewed from a preselected position.

At the level of entertainment these tricks are fun.

When it comes to manipulating reality, however, those who willfully lie to trick people into giving up their bank account information or purchasing an unsafe car, do so because they themselves believe something false about how the universe works.

They have decided that there is either no God or that God is impotent and not particularly bright.

In their calculation the spoils will always go to the clever and heartless few who know how to play the system.

So far, however, I believe I have addressed the fewest in number with perception problems — the audience in a magic show and con artists.

By far those suffering from the inability to see accurately are those who choose not to.

What do I mean?

How many times have we heard or spoke the statement, “I’ll believe it when I see it!”?

As I have already explained, this isn’t how sight actually works. We don’t ever see everything we look at. We choose what to focus on within the field of vision in front of us.

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With this in mind, here is a good psalm to meditate on today.

Psalms 10 (ESV)

Why Do You Hide Yourself?

1 Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;

let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,

and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.

4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;

all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

5 His ways prosper at all times;

your judgments are on high, out of his sight;

as for all his foes, he puffs at them.

6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;

throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”

7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;

under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

8 He sits in ambush in the villages;

in hiding places he murders the innocent.

His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;

9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;

he lurks that he may seize the poor;

he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.

10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,

and fall by his might.

11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,

he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;

forget not the afflicted.

13 Why does the wicked renounce God

and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?

14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,

that you may take it into your hands;

to you the helpless commits himself;

you have been the helper of the fatherless.

15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;

call his wickedness to account till you find none.

16 The LORD is king forever and ever;

the nations perish from his land.

17 O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;

you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,

so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.