Craig Clouston

Blind Spots

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…

Joel 2:25

Despite growing up in a secular home, Lee and Lynn managed to find the love of Jesus Christ. Time passed and each married and had children. As siblings do, each adopted their own unique style of parenting traits and characteristics; among them were a few that would have been better left to past generations.

One lived a blue collar lifestyle while the other owned and worked a small business. Both grew in the knowledge and wisdom of God. In both were seeds; seeds of love, and seeds of familial apathy; the latter a hand-me-down from the prior generation. A generation that had fostered sibling apathy and indifference for reasons neither could recall, nor cared to discover. And from this fertile soil grew a root that was unsatisfied with stealing just one generation of love and relationship. Lee and Lynn’s pride became a tool in the hands of an enemy so cunning and shrewd that they never saw it coming.

One moment in time, no one really remembered, became the wedge that was now planted firmly between them. Both were sure they had gone the extra mile to reconcile. Neither saw their blind spot. For the walls that had been erected stood tall, strong, and impenetrable; neither realized that what they despised in the other was a barrier of their own making.

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Satan began his attack on God’s family in the Garden…and in this situation, he will not relent unless both relationships are destroyed. And no healing will be promoted unless both parties seek resolution. When that fails to happen the locusts continue their feast.

Stubbornness and pride have ended more relationships than we can imagine. The enemy knows how to manipulate us without our conscious knowledge or permission. He sows seeds of animosity and resentment against those we love. We become blinded by a need for vindication, and all reason goes out the door. As far as we’re concerned we were the ones who are wounded. It’s up to the other person to make the first move!

Is there anything so valuable that we would justify continuing to fight while losing everything meaningful in the process? When we consider the loving forgiveness that God extended to us through Christ, can we do any less?

Prayer

“Healer of relationships and families, show me if there are any blind spots in my life. Restore what the locusts have eaten. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”