Forward Facing Faith: Part 3 -- BlindSight

The visual cortex is responsible for processing visual information. In the 1960s, Cambridge psychologists removed this part of the brain from a monkey named Helen. Amazingly, they found that Helen was able to gradually develop her visual response until her “sight” was nearly as good that of a healthy monkey. The phenomenon was later confirmed in humans: A patient with a damaged visual cortex “could still guess the position and shape of objects,” although strangely, he insisted he couldn’t see. His eyes still worked, but only on an unconscious level. The researchers termed this unconscious vision “BlindSight.”

BlindSight is defined by the Oxford Concise Dictionary as "a condition in which the sufferer responds to visual stimuli without consciously perceiving them." It describes a phenomenon where a person who has lost the part of the brain that interprets vision and is, by their own acknowledgment completely blind, responds to visual stimulation that is, apparently, perceived on a subconscious level. It describes a vision that responds to things it can't see.

This, my friend, is the core of forward facing faith. It is a faith that seeks results beyond what it can see and understand. It is a faith that, because it dares to seek what it can't see, brings into being that which was only hoped for. Perhaps this is what Paul meant when he said, in Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Faith provides substance to those things that are not seen, those things that are only hoped for.

I recently heard an amazing story about a man who was born blind. He lived his whole life blind. He grew up and fell in love. He and his sweetheart got married and had children. He lived a completely normal life with the one exception: He was blind.

Late in life his doctor read some developing research and performed some tests on the man. To make a long process short, they learned what was causing the blindness. And they told the man that they could perform an operation that would restore his sight. After a life lived in complete blindness he agreed to allow them to perform the somewhat experimental surgery.

The day came and the doctors performed wonders in their surgical procedure. When it was finished and they unwrapped his eyes, to the surprise of both the man and his wife, he was able to see. For the first time in his life, he could really see. However, the more astonishing fact was that he immediately recognized his wife. He knew who she was without being told. When his kids came into the room he knew them before they spoke, without any form of identification. Even though he had never seen them in his life.

When the doctors became curious and began to ask questions he told them that he recognized them because over the years, even though he couldn't see them, he had perceived what they looked like. Countless times he had used his hands to memorize the facial features of those that he loved until he developed a perception in his mind of what they looked like.

The phenomenon wasn't limited to his children. When they walked out of the hospital he was able to identify things he had never seen before. That's a fire hydrant he said, because he had stopped to rest many times next to a fire hydrant and felt of it with his hands. As he was walking there were things that he saw that he recognized because he had stopped along the way before, when he was blind, and felt of those things. Now he was able to recognize them when he saw them. He recognized things because he had perceived them in his mind. All along he had been extending his imagination to perceive what he had not yet seen.

This is what faith is all about, extending your vision beyond what your eyes can see. Paul said, in 2 Corinthians 5:7, "We walk by faith, not by sight." The problem with sight is that it tends to obscure faith. If we aren't careful we will allow the vision of faith to be blocked by what we see with our natural eyes. If we aren't careful we will allow what the doctor says to rob us of our promise. If we aren't careful we will allow what the newspaper says to rob us of our faith. If we aren't careful we will allow the naysayers around us to convince us that this is as good as it gets. Friend, can I tell you this morning, that it is time to extend your vision beyond what you can see. It is time for BlindSight, that vision that reaches for something that is yet unseen.

It's the vision of faith that compels us to reach for what we haven't yet obtained. This is the source from which forward facing faith flows. This is the vision that keeps hope in our heart and turns away the negative report of our enemy. This is the vision that allows a child of God in the darkest of times to cling to the hope that Joy comes in the morning. This is the vision that compels a struggling church to stand fast in faith and declare that better things are yet to come. This my friend is forward facing faith, a faith that looks beyond what it can see and strives for what has only been perceived by the eyes of faith.

St. Louis Cardinal’s announcer Mike Shannon is well known for his mishandling of the English language. Fans that listen to the Cardinals on the radio have come to call his most outrageous errors of speech Shannonisms. They are many and they are often funny. Comments like, “This big standing-room only crowd is settling into their seats"; "Our next homestand follows this road trip"; or "That ball was hit high sky." My personal favorite is a misspoken cliché that speaks volumes to my soul. After an incredible play Mike will bellow in his excitement, “I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t believed it.”

I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't first believed it. There is an incredible truth in that simple statement. There are things in your walk with God that you will never see if you don't first believe in them. That's what forward facing faith does for you. It extends your faith until you are able to perceive what you've never seen. It extends your faith to the point that it compels you into the promise that you have been given. I wonder what there is in your life, today, that you will never see if you don't first loose your faith to believe in it...