Lessons of our "lying eyes"

I have never been one who can remember lines from movies. However, one line from the TV series Dallas has always stuck with me. Sue Ellen has just caught JR in a compromising situation and is in the midst of scolding him when he turns to her and says, "who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes."

Of course JR was known to be quite adept at deception for his own purposes and was surely guilty of whatever Sue Ellen was accusing him of. However, this line has always stuck with me because it captures the essence of the question of faith.

Have you ever had a spat with someone you love and you know loves you. Yet, in times of silence when you are apart, your mind can run in all directions of accusation. You let the visible evidences of the other person's actions control your thoughts and sometimes your actions. You wonder if you can trust them. The other person yearns to have you focus on their heart, not what your eyes tell you. In a sense they are challenging you in the same way, "who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes."

We see this theme all the time in chic flicks, especially Hallmark movies. It is faith in the person's heart that we often have to rely on in relationships. We find that what we see in what others do can easily deceive us, lead us to think things about the person and their love for us that is not consistent with what we know about their heart. Conclusive evidence that we cannot observe about the love someone has for us is the faith in that person's love.

Faith is not trusting, faith is the evidence we cannot see that we trust. 

We have to determine in our own heart that the evidence is true and we can depend on it, even when we can't see it. As I have written many times, trust is a willful vulnerability, giving control over to something we believe is in our best interest. What we trust is our willful act.

This happens in our lives all the time, in many ways. We ultimately must trust evidence that we cannot see as conclusive to what is true. It is a myth that we do not walk in faith. We all do. The question is not WHETHER we walk in faith, but in what do we have faith. What evidence that we cannot see do we trust for our thoughts, feelings and actions?

With respect to Christians we read that our faith is a gift. and this is true. God gave us conclusive evidence of HIS unending, unmerited favor in Jesus. He provides the faith, we provide the trust. Its like God is asking us every moment as we turn our affections to other objects that are meant to deceive us, "who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"