Battle for Vision

Have you ever fought a battle with something that seems to win over and over again, yet you continue to wage war with it? A lot of times it is something mundane or basic, yet it still tries to get your goat every time. I have. My battle is any body of water used for swimming vs. my contacts. It is a war every time.

I started wearing contacts my freshman year of college so I've had 7 years to refine my tactics. It usually goes something like this.

"Hey, let's go swimming."
"I'm down. Let me go get my swimsuit on."
5 minutes later.
"Canon Baaalllllllllll..."
SPLASH!!!
"Wait...Hold it...I can't find my contact. Where did it go? Can you see it in my eye? I think I may have lost it. I thought I closed my eyes, but I guess not. Maybe it's just shifted. I can only see with one eye now."

If you've ever worn contacts, then you know this feeling. Suddenly, within a blink of an eye (literally) you are blinded. Everything that you saw so clearly before has now become a blur and your entire world comes to a stop until you are able to find, replace, or restore your vision.

On this particular occasion, I was spending some time on the lake with some friends. We were out on the boat taking turns trying to knock each other off of the inner-tube in our very own King of the Hill game. We would bound back and forth between tubes trying to display our best impersonations of Indiana Jones, Lui Kang, and Spider Monkeys. It was a busy weekend as far as other boats being on the lake, so there were all kinds of waves knocking us around. At one of the sharp turns that our boat took, one of my friends and I both caught the wake of another boat that launched us 10 feet into the air. I immediately started laughing at the look on his face before I hit the peak of my ascent and then made my own face as we plummeted into the water, smacking against the surface and sinking several feet below. As we made our way to the surface, I noticed two things. First, the boat was leaving us in the water at a rapid pace. Second, I couldn't see out of my right eye. The first thing that went through my mind was that I didn't bring any extra contacts. The second thing that went through my mind was that I'm going to have some major headaches from blurred vision if I didn't find this contact. The third thing that went through my head was that the water got me again. Touche, water, touche.

After much blinking and rotating my eyes around to see if I could find it, I was finally able to locate it in the corner of my eye. Herein lies the predicament: I now have found my contact, however I am floating on top of a lake in my lifejacket with a wet contact sticking to my wet finger with no place to look into a mirror, no place to stand, and no way to tell if I've got it back in right.

For the next 5 minutes I unsuccessfully try to reinstall this eye device. In case you are wondering, because you've never worn contacts, it is extremely hard to get a contact off of a wet finger, especially while bobbing like a buoy. I am finally able to get the contact into my eye, but it is nowhere near being in place. I blink and I look one way and I look the other way and I blink some more. I close my eyes and circle them around my eyelids to try to get them in the right place. I even stick my finger back into my eye and try to force it to where it should go. Nothing works. I decide to get back in the boat and just Popeye it until we get back to the house and I can make it right.

As I swim to climb into the boat I blink one last time for good measure and suddenly everything is clear. I close my left eye to make sure that my mind isn't playing tricks on me and sure enough, my contact fell back into place. At just the last minute, when I didn't think I was going to be able to restore my vision, everything was clear again. I could see.

Thank you for playing, Water. That was quite the battle. You fought well. You knocked me down, but you didn't knock me out. Water = 0, Brody = 1.

So back to the tube pouncing I went.

I was proud. In fact, I still am. All of my fellow contact wearers in the boat also applauded my efforts noting that it was quite the feat to accomplish given the circumstances. That was my first time ever successfully putting in my contact while floating in the middle of a lake with wet fingers. I'm not sure if they have Guinness World Records for that, but I do believe that my performance would be noteworthy.
Vision...it's what makes the world go 'round. Sometimes you take advantage of it and fail to use it. Everything is blurry without it. If you don't have it, then you'll go nowhere. Vision is clear. Vision is bold. Vision brings insight to your life and the lives of those around you. Vision.

If you want to see how vision can really rock your world, read Acts 9.

You can do battle over and over again with your own vision, but until you allow God’s vision to align yours, blurriness is all you will see.