One of my favorite Scripture verses in all the Bible is Micah 6:8/KJV:”He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Note its exhaustiveness, its finality; its formulaic construction and perfection of instruction. Make no mistake O man; I have shown you what to do, how to think, and how to behave.
Perhaps it is only natural that we should aspire to greatness in the headlong pursuit of those things we deem most worthy of our best and finest attention. Too often we mistakenly accentuate along the lines of desire and not strength; delusions of grandeur blind us to the trivial and mundane tasks that grow into the transcendent moments we seek out. We forget God’s mandate not to forget the days of small beginnings; we forget the mustard seed parable: how from the smallest seedling comes the largest bush. When did the enlarged picture, the bloody engorged painted landscape eclipse all barren tomorrows? When did hope materialize too drastically and poignantly to be realistic? Since when did color overflow her boundaries and scribble eternal incoherence? When my intellect is starved my imagination becomes malnourished, black and stark; when it is over-fat and too occupied, it also effects my imagination, denuding its powers by nourishing every nuanced thought. Too fat, too richly digesting, and again the colors bleed and blur.
Vision is fine; and yes, we die without it. But better to be dim sighted than outright blind; at least a semblance of form can be discerned and interpreted this way. Any theology which claims to see absolutely nil is in itself near nil as a religion. Christ opened eyes, and they came to see, but first fuzzy people like trees and reveries emerged; may His Spirit hover and His hands linger long enough to be effectual.
How like it is our manner to place vision, however, over even duty? I agree with C. S. Lewis: “Vision is for sale, or claims to be for sale, everywhere. But give me a man who will do a day’s work for a day’s pay, who will refuse bribes, who will not make up his facts, and who has learned his job (p. 112). Herein is the essence of what is good and required of us—duty!
References
Lewis, C. (1992). The seeing eye; And other selected essays from Christian
Reflections. NY: Ballantine Books.
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