The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Spiritual Optometry

Episode Date: February 27, 2017

What’s the link between your eyes and your heart? Jeff Cavins explores this connection and gives you food for thought to help you check your “spiritual vision.”

Hey, I'm Jeff Kavins. How do you simplify your life? How do you study the Bible? All the way from motorcycle trips to raising kids, we're going to talk about the faith and life in general. It's the Jeff Kaven Show. And welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show. I'm Jeff Kavins.

So glad that you have joined me to once again share a little bit about faith and life and some of the things that are common to to all of us. Hope you're really having a good, a good experience right now with the Lord and getting deeper into the life of Christ, deeper into scripture, deeper into prayer. I've got to say right now, I'm enjoying my life with Christ right now. And it's one of those good times, you know, where you're not experiencing some of the obstacles and some of the problems that we often do, not to say they're not around the corner, but I enjoy the good times, and I hope that you are having a good time right now.

Hey, I want to talk today with you about something that just caught my attention when I was at the eye doctor. And I don't know if you wore glasses or contacts or what, but our eyes are really, really important. And I want to talk about the relationship between your eyes and the problems that you could have with your vision and your heart. Not your physical heart, but your spiritual aspect, that heart that I'm talking about, whether you have a supple heart or a hardened heart. And I suddenly started thinking about the different conditions, you know, as I was talking to the eye doctor, about the different conditions that we can struggle with as far as our physical eyes

and how that parallels with our heart, how it compares with our heart. Now, all of this really started for me quite some time ago. And I want to tell you a little bit about that, about a problem I had with my eyes and how it led me further down the road to start contemplating my eyes and my heart. And if you're at a place right now in your life where everything is going just fantastic, that's great. But you know what?

It's good to go get your eyes checked now and then, and it's good to check your your heart now and then. So we're going to take a break when I come back. We're going to go into a little search on our eyes and our heart and see if we need to make an adjustment in our life today. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Hi, this is Father Mike Schmitz. And if you're looking for a way to learn more about your Catholic faith, I invite you to check out the Ascension Presents YouTube channel. You're going to find tons of free videos featuring Catholic presenters like Matt Frad, Leodero, Jackie Bobby Angel, and Emily Wilson. Go to YouTube.com slash Ascension Presents. That's YouTube.com

slash Ascension Presents, and if you like what you see, please share and subscribe. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven show. I'm Jeff. Good to be with you. Before the break, I was mentioning that I went to an eye doctor actually quite a while ago

because I was having some problems with my eyes. Back when I was a Protestant pastor before coming back to the Catholic Church, I was doing a lot of counseling, you know, with people And I started to get three or four people in the church that were complaining to the elders about me. And they said that when I was counseling them, I wasn't looking right at them.

I was looking actually off to the side, you know, kind of beyond them at the wall or whatever. Well, I wasn't aware of it at all. But it turns out I was having headaches while I was looking at people that were only three feet from me. And I needed glasses. That was the solution, is I needed glasses. But what I learned out of that was that the condition of my eye affected other people. You know, how I was seeing and the problems I was experiencing with my eye was affecting other people in a detrimental way. Well, there's a relationship between your eyes, your physical eyes, and your spiritual heart.

And you can find this in the New Testament in several places. Let me just give you a couple of scriptures in the New Testament that talk. about the relationship between eyes and hearts, especially Jesus' teaching. Listen to what he says in John 12, 37 through 40. In verse 40, he says, he has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts so that they can neither see with their hearts nor turn, and I would heal them. And so to say blind eyes is to say deaden heart. It's a deaden heart in John's language. To not see properly is to not understand properly. And if you have an eye condition, you have a heart condition.

So there's a relationship. John draws this correlation between the eyes and the heart. And Paul ties the two together also in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 3 through 6. I'll just read a little bit of it here for you. He says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the mind. of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God. That's interesting. You know, he draws that correlation between the eyes and the heart as well. There are things that are not seen, values, truths, etc., that we must see with our spiritual eyes. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

Well, as I ended up, I got glasses and things settled down. People didn't report me to the elders back then, and I've been wearing glasses ever since. And I would guess that many of you are wearing glasses or you've got contacts or you've had Lasic surgery or something to correct your eyes. But what about your heart? Do we check our hearts regularly? I would suggest we do. And that's what this show today is all about is checking our.

hearts and I looked up some eye conditions that have a parallel to your spiritual heart. So allow me to be your spiritual optetrician for just a moment and go over some of these conditions and see if you might have these eye conditions that relate to your heart. The first one is, and I actually talked to the eye doctor about this. I didn't know about some of these names. It's called myopia. What's myopia? Well, it's the condition of the eye where the image that is coming into the eye is focused before it gets to the retina.

This is known as near-sightedness, okay? Nearsightedness. Interesting that the dictionary, when you look it up, it includes in there the definition of nearsightedness as, get this, a lack of imagination. A lack of imagination. So concerning the condition of the heart, if myopia, concerning the condition of the heart, we would say that, this person can't see past the mirror. They can't see past themselves. It's me vision. Myopia. Myopia. Maybe you struggle with that. I think I've struggled with it at times. Maybe you know of someone in your family or someone you work with that it's all about me. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. You know,

they can't seem to get beyond the mirror. All they think about is themselves. They can't see other needs or concerns. You could call this condition self-centered. And I'll be honest, I've struggled with myopia of the heart from time to time, and it's not attractive at all. They may also be so focused on self that they are overly critical of themselves or think more of themselves than they ought. You know, the definition of humility really is a proper, it's a proper assessment of who you are in relationship to others and a proper assessment of who you are in relationship to God. A couple more things about the person that might be struggling with myopia, and if you are,

it's best that we're honest about it, and we can take this to the Lord and ask him to correct our vision, correct our heart. This person doesn't have a long-term vision that really considers heaven. They only see the things of this earth, the temporal things, the things that are in front of them. I've been like that before where I'm not thinking long-term and making plans and making prudent decisions, but I'm just simply responding to everything in front of me, and everything in front of me is all there is, and it's me, me, me. Well, this person also doesn't see long-term consequences to near-term decisions and actions in near-term words that they use

in meetings among family and their children. They're focused on their skill, they're focused on their ability to solve all problems. You know who reminds me of this? I don't know if you've studied with me before with the great adventure. We've got to study on the book of Revelation. And in chapter three of the book of Revelation, John, he describes the church at Laodicea. And the church at Laodicea was known for making special Isav, Phrygian Isav. And they were known for the banking industry and for the textile industry. And he says, in there, he says, you know what, you Leodicians. Imagine if he knew about this, he'd say, you have myopia, you're myopic. You are poor. You're actually naked. And you're actually

blind. So people who struggle with a heart condition, a myopic heart condition, near-sightedness, their actions tend to be done to be seen by others, whether it's prayer, giving, volunteering, or whatever it might be. And I'm reminded of what Jesus said in the sermon on the in Matthew 6. He said, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by men. He says, but when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who's in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. Also a little bit more about the myopic condition of the heart. They tend to look to their own interests. They'll tend to just focus on their own interests.

And how will this situation or action place me in the group? What will I look like? Will I advance if we take this step, make these decisions? Reminds me of what Paul said, you know, about this myopic condition of the heart. He says in Philippians 2.3 says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interest. but also to the interests of others.

Some good advice there, huh? Pretty good advice. And a couple more things about the myopic condition of the heart. These people tend to think they are right all the time. Monday morning quarterback for the church. Monday morning quarterback for life. Proverbs 3.7, don't be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord, shun evil.

And also one more thing about this myopic condition of the heart. They find it difficult to sacrifice for the long term. Why? They want everything today. Want everything now. Nearsightedness. What we have in front of us is all there is. And we kind of forget about heaven.

Well, that's one condition. Have I experienced it in my life before? You bet. What do you do? You've got to bring this to the Lord. This is something that is the material of confession, to be honest with you, is to go in there and say, I'm near-sighted spiritually. I cannot get my mind off myself, my own needs, my own, my own, my own, my own, my own, my own,

you know, Lord, expand my vision, please expand my vision. The next one, the condition is called hyperopia, hyperopia. Hyperopia is the condition of the eye where the image is focused behind the retina. Myopia was in front of the retina. This is behind the retina. It's better known as far-sightedness. far-sightedness so what are the what are now we're relating the eye condition to the heart so if we're talking about hyperopia far-sightedness you tend to see far away but you can't see

what's right in front of you okay that's what I have in my glasses that's the prescription that I have in my glasses I I can see really far away I don't have a problem with it but the thing's right in front of me hello blind as a bat in the first three feet I need glasses, I need assistance to see what's in front of me here because I'm so far-sighted. Okay. Well, a couple things about this type of heart condition. This person has a tendency, number one, to not see the immediate needs and concerns of family and friends. They're always looking way out there, what they want down the road, the big picture in life, you know, and all that.

They give to others and don't provide for those closest to them. They're changing the world. but they're not changing their family's lives. They can't see what's right in front of them. Timothy spoke about this in 1st Timothy 580, he said, if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and get this

and is worse than an unbeliever. The person that is far-sighted, hyperopia, they also have a tendency to see the speck in everyone else's eye rather than their own. They don't see what's in their own eye, but they're talking about what's in everybody else's eye. And Jesus said in Matthew 7, why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? We could call that log in eye syndrome.

Yes, I've had that one too. Number three, the person that's far sighted as far as the heart goes, they're worried about future success rather than immediate responsibility. I got to say, I think this one is, this one might be, I don't know, you tell me if you think I'm right or wrong here, in the show notes, I'll give you some contact information. You can leave some feedback. Do you think this is more of a men's problem than a women's problem? I don't know.

I notice it a lot in men. I've got to be honest with you, I notice it a lot in men. Men are worried about future success rather than immediate responsibility. They're interested more in what's happening at work. That's the real battle rather than. The battle that's taking place at home. I remember talking to one guy, I just came to mind just now, I remember talking to one guy many years ago, and this guy was so stressed out.

He was a young guy, young family, and he came to me and he said, Mr. Kavens, I got to talk to you about something. I said, sure, whatever. And he said, I am so stressed out about where I'm going to get my Ph.D. And I said, you are. When are you going to be doing your Ph.D.? Are you ready to go to your Ph.D.? He said, oh, no, no.

He said, I'm a sophomore undergrad. I said, you're a sophomore undergrad and you're worried about where you're going to take your Ph.D. Yeah. I said, why don't we reel it in a little bit here, get a little bit closer, and let's just deal right now with getting your bachelors and then your master's. Now, we can talk about your PhD, but that's a good example of this idea of always worried about future success rather than immediate responsibility. This person also goes beyond the teachings of Christ in the name of progress.

You know, John's second epistle, number nine, verse nine, said, anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teachings of Christ does not have God. Whoever continues in the teaching has both the father and the son. Have you ever run into people who go beyond? They're far-sighted here. They go way beyond the teachings of Jesus, you know, add to it. That's a little bit of a description of a hyperopia heart. They're interested in new teachings. They're interested in running ahead. And these are the people who are advanced thinkers

smarter than the church, you know. That's far-sightedness. And they consider themselves as one who is going to heaven without any concern for their actions in daily life. Far-sightedness. That's a challenge to me, to be honest with you. You know, as I'm sitting here talking to you and sharing my heart, which I think is a good thing, I'm challenged. I am far-sighted. And I need help in prayer. Jesus help me to see what's right in front of me.

Assist me in my vision to see my children, my wife, my household needs instead of always way out there. If that's your condition, my friend, pray and ask God to help you. We're going to take a break right now when we come back. back, I want to share with you a couple more eye conditions and some solutions that I think will be helpful as we take this time today to take an examination of our heart the way we would with our eyes. I'm Jeff Kavans, and this is the Jeff Kavis show. We'll be right back. There might be an upcoming ascension event happening near you, and we'd love for you to attend. Almost every week, our inspiring Catholic speakers travel to parishes, schools, and organizations

around the country to ignite hearts with the love of Christ. Discover and register for upcoming ascension events at ascensionpress.com slash events. Welcome back to the Jeff Kaven show. We're talking about all kinds of stuff that interest us in life. And today we're looking at this idea of the relationship between the eyes and the heart, which Jesus and Paul both draw that relationship. And specifically, we're looking at eye conditions that you will learn about when you go to the eye doctor, like near-sightedness and far-sightedness. And I got a couple more for you here. The next one, is presbyopia. Ah, big fancy words, presbyopia. I hope I got that right. If you're an eye doctor,

go ahead, leave some comments. Presbyopia, you know what that is? Hardened vision. The lens on your eye becomes so hard and it loses the ability to change shape. This is near and far-sightedness combined. This usually happens to middle-aged to the elderly. The eye loses the ability to change shape rapidly. Concerning the eye condition of the heart, we could say that this person is not pliable in the hands of God and is resistant to new ideas or new ways of doing things. You could put it another way. You're set in your ways. You're set in your ways. You know it. You're not changing. You're set in your ways. You need help. We all need help if we have this condition. We need help. We need advice. We need to get advice, but we are in flexing.

as far as the condition of our hearts, and we can't get this advice from other people. We can't get the help that we need because we're kind of no-it-alls. This person is oftentimes from the heart perspective now, indifferent. They can't change. The elasticity is gone. They don't have a big heart for people. They're stuck in their way. They're indifferent.

Someone once told me quite a while ago, they said, I think it's really good, too. They said, what's the opposite of love? Well, most people will say hate. No, hate is not the opposite of love. Indifference is. Indifference, you just don't care. That's the opposite of love. At least if you hate, you're involved.

You have something, some skin in the game here, but to be indifferent. First John, chapter 3 in verse 17, if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, get that, seize his brother in need. but has no pity on him. How can the love of God be in him? He's not going to change. He sees the need, but he's not going to change. This person can't love God who they can't see because they don't love those that they can see. Is that the condition of your heart? If it's the condition of your heart, you've got to go to the Lord and say, Lord, you've got to soften my heart. You've got to give me a new heart, Lord. My heart is hardened, just like the vision, Presbyopia. Lord, Lord, I want to be supple in your hands. I want to. I want to be pliable in the hands of God.

I want to be sensitive to the voice of God. These are the things that I desperately want. Another sign of presbyopia is not flexible around others. Have you, let me be honest. I have run into some Christians who are so stuck in their ways, and so rigid that they are hardly any earthly good. So heavenly minded, no earthly good, and it's not attractive at all, so rigid that it's really judgmental. And I think that that's an ugly form of Christianity, an ugly form of Catholicism, if you will.

We need to be flexible around others. And Paul was the epitome of this as the great super apostle. In 1 Corinthians chapter 9, he even talks about it. He says, though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law, I became like one not having the law, though I am not free from God's law, but am under Christ's law. So as to win those, not having the law.

Then listen to what he says here. He says, to the weak, I became weak, to win the week. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. That, my friends, is a good eye condition. That's a good heart condition. He is not hardened. He is flexible, but not sinning. he is elastic but he doesn't give license to sin that's the great apostle paul let's take a look at

another one here shall we uh this is fun i like this i like going through these and making the analogy uh i'll give you one more it's called um strabismus oh i hope i got that right i should have probably figured out how to say it maybe i got it right strabismus what's that oh you're going to love this one, especially you guys. It's a straying eye. It's straying vision. Straying vision. This is when the eyes are not able to focus on an object at the same time. There's a lack of muscle coordination resulting in confusion to the brain. Whoa. Okay, now this one, this one might just touch real close to home, you know, for a lot of men with a straying eye. You got a straining eye. Do you have a straying heart? Is your heart wandering always with one eye looking at what it shouldn't

be looking at, thinking, I'm okay? Well, concerning the heart condition, we would say that this person, Strabismus, this person has one eye on the world and one eye on Jesus. They are trying to serve two masters at the same time, resulting in confusion. It's happened to me, guilty. I've had to go to the Lord. Help me, Lord. Help me to have pure vision. and to focus on what I should be focusing, make a covenant with my eyes to look on no thing that I shouldn't be looking at.

Habitually, you know, this person stares with one eye at worthless TV, for example. And this happens to all of us. I think we get caught in it. We're staring at worthless TV shows. Worthless. They have no value, no moral value,

no lasting value, no eternal value. And we stare at them, or books, magazines, while trying to look at Christ with the other eye. It's straying vision. If that's what you're struggling with from the heart, here's what we need to do. We need to start focusing on some scriptures that will straighten that vision out.

Proverbs 1724 says, A discerning man keeps wisdom in view, but a fool's eyes wonder to the ends of the earth. The psalmist said in Psalm 1, 1937, turn my eyes away from worthless things, preserve my life, according to your word. This person that has strabismus has a problem. They do not take custody of their eyes, but lustfully stare at people and see them as objects. If that's you, you've got to take custody of your eyes.

This person says they want to serve Christ, but they are in constant pursuit of other things. a straying vision, straying eyes. And I'll remind you, you know what Matthew said, because it bears repeating in a sermon on the mountain in Matthew 624, no one can serve two masters. You can't serve God and money at the same time. And Timothy, you know, he echoes that. He says, for the love of money, not money,

but the love of money is the root of all evil. So a couple of other scriptures, let me share this with you, and you might want to listen to this show a couple of times and write these down. If you're in the car right now, don't be writing. Keep your eyes on the road. Don't stray. I want you to be alive. But when you get a moment, write these down. Proverbs 425, let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Psalm 2515, my eyes are ever on the Lord, for only he will release my feet from the snare. Psalm 141.8, but my eyes are fixed on you, O sovereign Lord. In you, I take refuge. And then I love this one. This is so good. It's Hebrews 12, 2. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Isn't that great?

I love it. I love it. So what do we do with all this? Well, it's interesting. And I think we can draw a correlation between your physical eyes and your spiritual heart. So what's our response to all of this? What do we do? What do we do? Well, I think what we need to do, number one, is we need to pray. And we need to ask Jesus for sight. We need to ask him for sight. Remember that the story in Mark chapter 10, Jesus said to them, remember what he said? He said, what do you want me to do for you? This guy's blind. What do you want me to do for you? And the blind man said, master, let me receive my sight. So I would suggest to you, as I'm taking the suggestion myself, Jesus, I want to receive my sight. I want proper sight. I want 20-20 vision. I don't want a straying eye. I don't want to be

spiritually far-sighted or near-sighted or I don't want to be hardened in my heart. Lord, give me sight and then repent, repent of the of the straying that's going on in our life, the near-sightedness, the far-sightedness, and call it for what it is. It's missing the mark. We're off the mark. We need help and we need to repent. And it's important to realize that an enemy wants to cloud your vision. He wants to do damage to your heart. He wants to blind your mind. And so do what Jesus said to do. He said to the disciples in Matthew 1129, he said, Take my yoke upon you.

What's that? When Jesus said, take my yoke upon you, it means literally take my worldview upon you. See the world the way I see the world. See marriage the way I see marriage. See the poor. See the disenfranchised. See the future.

See what's in front of you. See your children. See your wife. See it all. As I do. That's the vision that we. want oh that is good and i'm pardon me while i uh encourage myself today uh it's important to do this it really is take my yoke upon you matthew 11 29 oh that's good i love it and now finally i'll just

i'll leave this with you okay uh paul prayed in ephesians 1118 and he said this and this would be my prayer for you before we we wind down this show today he said i pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. So my friend, if you fit the bill on one of those or a couple of them, maybe all of them, I don't know. But if you do, take the responsibility to step up to the plate and to say, Lord, I need help in my vision. I need help with my heart. And all offer yourself to the Lord and ask for that new sight and that new vision and go forward, being careful to not step back into that way of viewing, that way of seeing the life,

seeing life before us. Hey, if you'd like to stay in touch with me, you can get a hold of me on Twitter, Jeff Kaven's, and also on Facebook. You can find all the studies at ascensionpress.com, all the great adventure studies. Quick reminder, everything. thing. Now, if you've got four people that you want to start a group to study any of our 40, 40 studies, guess what? No sign up fee, no monthly fee. All the videos are free. You heard me. They're all free. They're yours. If you get four people together in a group and you order the workbooks for that

particular study, four or more, four, 10, 20. We've got some groups, 200, 300 people. They have to pay anything for the videos. It's free. go to ascensionpress.com to check it out. God bless you, my friends. We look forward to seeing you next time on the Jeff Kaven show. Thank you.