Presbyopia.

Presbyopia.  It sounds like a new denomination, or perhaps a new brand of designer jeans, but in reality, it is something that eventually effects every one of us.  It is the inability to focus on things close at hand.

I remember my mother telling me a story of how she was teaching a class.  "I am afraid we are going to have to write all of the problems on the board," she told her class of teens.

"Why is that?" They asked.

"Because my arms aren't long enough to read them in the book," she answered.

I am getting to the age where I may soon need reading glasses, although, I still can read things fairly close at hand.  As I think about life, it is a lot harder to see things that are close by, than things that are distant.  It is a lot easier to see small problems or, inconsistencies in someone else's life, than it is to see large problems in my own.

Perhaps the answer is one of focus, but I don't really think so.  Humans just aren't very good at looking at themselves.  The answer to this problem is first of all, to look at myself through the lens of God's Word.  How do I measure up?

The second way is to incorporate someone else's vision into my analysis.  This fo course, come with a draw back -- I have to listen to what my brother, or friend shares, without attacking him.

It is so worth it.  For, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.  The easiest things for me to trip over are things close by me -- that I don't see on my own.