Have you heard the story about the Optometrist’s daughter? It goes like this – One summer
afternoon, the Optometrist’s daughter, a first-year philosophy major in college, was home
visiting her mother at work. As she sat in the waiting room, she observed patient after
patient stagger in and then, left confidently wearing brand new glasses. Later, mom took a
break from work, and the daughter invited her to lunch. At lunch, the daughter launched
into an interrogation of her mother that she had been planning all morning while sitting in
her office watching patients go in and out of the treatment rooms.

The daughter opened her diatribe with, “Mom, what if we got it wrong? What if astigmatism
is the reality and glasses that try to correct it are the real problem? What if life is blurry,
fuzzy, a visual mosaic and – glasses deny us that truth? Glasses remove the blurry and
distorted vision and provide corrective lenses.” The daughter, feeling passionate and proud
of her delivery, ended the interrogation with a dramatic flair when she asked, “Mom, is it
time to stop being a part of the problem? Is it time to take the glasses off, so we can finally
see?” With her last statement, she sat back in her chair, crossed her arms, and waited on
her mom’s response with a wide ‘gotcha’ smile.

The Optometrist sat quietly for a moment, genuinely considering her daughter’s
impassioned speech. After moments of silence, she replied “my dear philosophical one,
please forgive me in advance that my response is not as eloquent or passioned as your
query. My response is a question, and it is simply this – Are you tired of walking into walls?
Then, put some glasses on!”

In 2nd Timothy 1:7, Paul instructs Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of fear. Instead,
what God has given us is a spirit of love, power, and a sound mind. Love, power and a
sound mind – these three – help us to see hope, despite the presence of real fear. So, when
all we can see is the blurry, fuzzy, and visual mosaic of fear that causes us to run into the
walls of life and lose our hope – put on love, put on power, and put on a sound mind, so that
we may see hope, again. Amen.

Dr. Ron Bell