When I was in high school the glasses I wore when I started driving didn’t work. While I could see fine during the day, at night any lights that hit my eyes through the windshield were immediately blurred. This made for some terrifying drives until my optometrist helped me switch over to a new prescription so that I could see again.

All I needed to see was a new lens. The vision that had once worked didn’t anymore. It was dangerous for me to try and drive with it.

Far too often, we get caught on the vision that we’ve held on to for so long that we don’t notice the blurring it causes until it’s too late. In good times, we keep going with everything seeming ok, but when difficulty comes the blurring comes back in full force. We might as well pull over and double down until the way becomes clear again.

Most of the time what we’re missing is a new lens. We’ve spent so long looking through the old one that it’s difficult to adjust to but it’s often the only way forward.

Too many of us avoid the difficulty of finding a new lens and a new vision. We’d rather face the blurry vision we know rather than the clear one that we could have. The future is too dangerous to march forward with an uncomfortable vision, right? Why not keep what we’ve had–– at least it’s familiar!

The reality is that holding on to the things that once worked are no better than me driving without corrected vision. It’s dangerous even.

Time and again we will find ourselves faced with seeing our lives, situations, and world through a new lens if we want to move forward. The old vision just won’t work anymore.

The question is: are we ready to see again?