Psalm 119:18 Seeing Wonderful Things

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.  

Psalm 119:18

In my experience, God often uses the people and circumstances I encounter to open my eyes to see wonderful things in His law.

It works the other way around also. My time in His Word opens my eyes to see the wonderful things He is doing in the people and circumstances I encounter.

One without the other produces either nearsighted or farsighted faith.

Nearsighted faith interprets scriptures entirely through the spiritual lens of my own narrowly personal impressions of the Word, isolated from what's going on in the larger world. Bias, legalism, and self-focused faith are the chief symptoms.

Farsighted faith interprets scriptures entirely through the lens of my experiences in the wider world. Relativism, post-modern uncertainty, and and a diminished attitude toward the authority of the Bible are the chief symptoms.


When I began in the prison ministry, my immediate reaction was the same as nearly everyone else I've ever taken inside with me for the first time. The women who came to the prison chapel were clearly "criminals." They were dressed in identical prison clothes. But nearly all of them looked like they could have been someone I might meet in my home church, on campus, or at the grocery store.

Following quickly after the realization that they were all just regular people like me, my eyes were opened to see a wonderful thing in God's Word. If "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), then the sins of these prisoners are no worse or better in God's eyes than my own worst sins. Certainly, the State of Missouri has a different opinion, but to God, we are all just people who have fallen short of His glory.

This led to facing a challenging question on Q&A night at the prison:

"I'm a lesbian. It's just who I am, I didn't choose it. Is that a sin?"

Many Christians, once they actually get to know people who are homosexual, begin to view the scripture's teachings on the topic differently. The weight of their experience and relationships out in the wider world begins to apply pressure on their ability to accept what the scriptures appear to be clearly teaching.

My response is to I answer that question with, "Leviticus 20:13 is pretty clear about homosexuality." I then add, "...but you should also notice that chapters 19 & 20 of Leviticus are also quite clearly opposed to adultery and tattoos and several other things."

Trust me, there are a lot more adulterers and tattooed women in that prison chapel than there are homosexuals. Just as there are in the average congregation outside of prison.

The Christian who is slipping into farsightedness begins to slip here, thinking that perhaps homosexuality is no worse than getting a tattoo, and there are plenty of people in churches on Sunday mornings with tattoos these days. They might then tell the young lady who asked the question that it's OK to continue what she's doing.

The Christian who is leaning toward nearsightedness would probably say, "Yes! All of these things are sins! You are a sinner!" At which point this young woman, a prisoner who was seeking God enough to show up to a chapel service, likely shakes her head and decides to stop seeking.

Those are both obviously over-simplifications of the two different ways of integrating scriptures with experience. But there is a third way: to let experience train my spiritual eyes to see beyond a simple YES or NO, in order to discover the heart of God as revealed in His Word for the sake of this seeker.

Yes, I tell them, Leviticus does say all these things are sins. And so is my own gluttony and my laziness.

Then I point them to Romans 1, which also clearly categorizes homosexuality as a sin. Much like Leviticus, Paul includes it among a list of other sins - including being disobedient to parents, which we've all done at some point.

The Romans passage, though, is calling everyone's sin a sin. It's the opening argument in a lengthy discussion of sin that drives its point home in Romans 3:23 with, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God," and then finishes that sentence with verse 24: "and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came through Christ Jesus."

This, then, opened my eyes to a better understanding of Paul's teachings in Romans 7 and Galatians 3 about the purpose of the Law.

Thank you, Lord, for using both your scriptures and your work in the prison to open my eyes to see the reason for trusting firmly in what your Law says about sin. The point is not to build a wall between myself and "those sinners", but to paint a clear picture of the stark and beautiful contrast between "all have sinned" and "all are justified freely."

I would never have clearly seen that wonderful truth in His law if I hadn't kept my eyes open to both His revealed Word and to the people and circumstances I encounter while trying to live according to that Word.