Skip to main content

Tragedy of the eyes

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life —is not from the Father but is from the world.
I  recent came across the story of a British woman who died during cosmetic surgery at a clinic in Thailand. The 24-year-old was said to have been undergoing a procedure by an allegedly uncertified surgeon in Bangkok before her death. The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons said, “This tragic case highlights how, if lured by the prospect of what is essentially ‘cheap surgery’, patients can be left vulnerable.”

Sadly it is not the first time this has happened. In 2011 another British woman Claudia Aderotimi died in the United States. Ms Aderotimi worked as a dancer. She had come to believe that a 'bigger bottom' would make her famous enough to appear in hip hop videos. So she went to the USA trying to get an illegal 'butt enhancement' operation. One person who met her during one of the dance sessions described her as a "victim of the social pressure to be perfect".

This lure and desire to be "perfect" in people eyes is what Apostle John calls the "desires of the eyes". The original word for "desires" literally means deep cravings. Those things that assault our eyes and controls them. John says the world is full of these things which are not from God. The Lord Jesus said that the eye is the lamp of the body, "when your eye is healthy, your whole body is full  of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness" [Luke 11:34]. In other words our eyes are the windows to the world. Whoever controls your eyes controls you.

The power of the eyes to control us has always been there.  Yet it is clear that world is now more enslaved to what is seen and not what is thought than at any time in history the world. We live in the age of Instagram and YouTube where self promotion and gratification of the eyes means everything! We see what other people have and we want that. 

Our eyes increasingly push us to pursue God given desires to the extreme. Desiring to look presentable is okay, but the world now says you can have any body you want!  The result is the tragic consequences we see in the lives of these two British women. Seeing beauty in the opposite sex is a gift from God, which when abused leads to pornography. That in turn feeds the monster of sex trafficking and other vices.

Followers of Jesus are not immune to the tragedy of the eyes. Everywhere we look we are spiritually assaulted. The world beckons us to worship it in one way or another. It is not just through the many billboards! Many of us spend more time watching TV than reading our Bibles and praying to God. We must constantly ask ourselves – where in my life have I become enslaved to the eyes? How well am I looking after my eyes?

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2013

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Am Mother

I think it is true to say that the Netflix film I Am Mother is one the most disturbing movies I have watched for a long time. The film is set in a near future. Human life has been wiped out. An artificial intelligence (AI) called Mother is living inside a bunker where thousands of embroyos are stored. It selects an embryo and initiates a program to grow a baby within 24 hours. The AI then goes on to raise the child as its mother over the next few years.  After 16 years, the girl, who now goes by the name of Daughter (Clara Rugaard) is a teenager. She has never been outside because Mother has told her that the air is toxic. Her time is spend being home schooled in science and ethics so that she can become a perfect human being. The bond between Daughter and Mother is unusually strong. To our surprise there does not appear to be any mental or pyschological trauma of having a machine as her mother.  The strength of the bond between man and machine is tested when a nameless Woma...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Images of God (Legislator)

We have already seen that God reveals himself  in the Bible as judge, prosecuting attorney and defence lawyer. The final image of God from the court of law is that of God as the legislator or law give. The most well known scripture on this is Isaiah 33:12, which declares “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us”. God is the legislator, the one who sets forth the law. This is not the place for a full treatment of this area. But suffice to say that God’s law is a revelation of God himself. And this law goes beyond “moral laws” set out in the Bible. His law includes his general standards and norms with respect to the cosmos as a whole. God has put in physical and spiritual laws for the functioning of the universe. These laws are for our good and for His great glory.
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →