Speak to Me Sunday: Things Unseen

We look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;

for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.

~2 Corinthians 4:18

The problem about trying to live in this world is there is so much that is unseen, and it is those unseen parts that are often the most relevant.

Once I was driving down the road on a busy Friday afternoon, the traffic pinning me behind a terribly slow driver. I was beyond irritated. I had places I needed to be, things I needed to do. But I could not get around the car and I truly believed the driver was purposely ruining my day.

And then we happened to pull into the same strip mall. And then I noticed him emerge from the car on two artificial legs. And then I saw him hold on to the car as he walked to the trunk and pulled out a walker. And then I saw him use his walker to maneuver slowly to the storefront. And then I sat in my car, ashamed.

I had judged that man based on what I could see: a slow car, driven by an elderly man, one who braked constantly and took forever to execute a turn. All of that was true. My eyes had witnessed this. 

And yet, I made a sweeping judgment and thought I knew everything about this man.

Benjamin Franklin once said that whatever is begun in anger ends in shame, and the anger I had felt behind the wheel was replaced with shame when I realized that what I could not see had been much more important than what I could.

I just had not bothered to see beyond what was presented to me.

How much of what we “see” is just the tip of the iceberg? How many times have we made sweeping judgments based on what we saw on the news or read in a newspaper article? How can we presume to know anything if we only look with our eyes? Or if we narrow our vision? Or, if we look, but do not see?

During Mass tonight I was thinking about all that is unseen in the world: things like a thought, air, and sound, but also things like a soul, a belief, and tomorrow.

Unseen things like faith, hope, and love.

The very fact I was sitting in church before a God I could not see reminded me how so much of what is beautiful in the world is, in fact, unseen. Philippians 4: 6-9 reminds us of this with the call to love what is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise. All these unseen things which, paradoxically, become seen when acted upon.

Ultimately, so much about life is walking by faith. Not by sight. Not by what we believe. Not by what we are told. But by faith. Sometimes, walking with faith is all we get. And we are tested. And so we are tempted to take what we have and run with it, to assume and jump to conclusions and make sweeping judgments.

But sometimes, when we are walking in the darkness and clinging to that faith, when we are patient and truly looking beyond, God’s grace shines through and allows us to see the entire picture—such as when God showed me the entire man, and not just what I saw with my eyes.

It is only when we look for “the rest of the story” that we are able to look beyond what is in front of us.

And see the unseen.