Do you like the world you see around you? Does it shock you with its stories of horror and deprivation? Or does it amaze you with sights of love and giving? Does it amaze you how you could see beyond to a new order where death, disease, and inequality no longer exist?

There’s a story in early Christian writings about Jesus walking along a road and a blind man starts calling out to him for help. The story goes how Jesus stopped beside the man and asked what he wanted. One would assume Jesus would know; as a blind person, living a life of begging, he would certainly want to see like everyone else. Yet Jesus waits until the man, named Bartimaeus, answered and said, “I want to see!” Truly?

The desire to truly see life as it is can be a daunting request. We would need to stand on our own feet, face up to our deepest questions, and find our own most honest answers. We can no longer lie around as helpless victims accepting the answers and labels people have placed upon us; blind, liberal, conservative, Presbyterian, Catholic, or whatever else. If we want to see, the answers will come; if we want to remain blind, such we remain.

People who say they believe in an Eternal God see evidence of such seeing. People who say they don’t believe in God likewise see the evidence. People could write books on “Why I love God” or “Why I Hate God” and see logical conclusions. God, the Creator I envision, doesn’t really care what we want and never pushes or demands that we must change. The choice is up to us. We choose the time and place. If we want to really see, sight will be given.

In the Course in Miracles, which is really a book on “seeing,” there are lines which go, “…seek not to change the world but choose to change your mind about the world.” (ch. 21:1) A constant theme of this book and I believe in the early story above, is that how we think determines what we project onto the world. “As a person thinks, so it is.” Projection makes our perception or thinking clear.

I long to see a world which is eternal, kind, loving, and joyous. The world I saw for so many years was mortal, competitive, unkind, hateful, and depressing. I would grow angry in my futile efforts to change the world, and people around me. Then someone showed me how to really see, beginning with myself, and it made all the difference!  Instead of seeing myself as mortal and bound to a body, I saw myself as Spirit, as one with the Creator God. At that moment, I felt a new awakening to see. Instead of mortality, I began to see immortality; instead of shortages, I began to see abundance; instead of hate I began to see forgiveness. That’s the kind of world I think Jesus saw, and other great leaders and teachers of our history.  Yes, how one sees him or herself is how one sees the world about them.  Projection makes our perception clear.

The day you and I make a determined effort and desire to see is the day of new beginnings. The choice is always ours. If we want to remain blind beggars, laying along a dusty road, waiting for lonely scraps the world gives us, then so be it. If we want to see beyond to another world of eternal love and joy, we can see that one as well. May we all be blessed with a deep desire to see Life as it is!