What You Can Only Learn By Being Invisible

EAVES dropping is fun for some, and depending on the motive, it can be productive. This article is not about eaves dropping, but it is about overhearing public conversations, and observing life that is in full view, as it augments our acquisition of perspective.

We can only survive in life, let alone thrive, if we reclaim our God-blessed perspective. This is God’s truth that he would have us know. Through only our eyes, our heart, and our filter can we come to know what God has set aside for us to know.

Knowing comes from observation, and observation comes from experience, and experience comes from exposure. Knowledge doesn’t just come intellectually, but also relationally, contemplatively, and charismatically as well. Knowledge we can claim in the realm of invisibility is of the latter three; knowledge through experience.

The point of becoming invisible has various advantages:

1.     We get to pretend what life will be like when we are no longer around; when life will have to happen without us around, thank-you-very-much! This introduces us to the concept that, notwithstanding our intrinsic value to God, we are no more important than the next person. It makes us humble to be invisible. It helps us to know that we are not the centre of the universe.

2.     When we take away the distraction it is to be present in others’ lives, we can deploy our focus in the reflective space. We get to focus on aspects of life we would ordinarily have no idea about. And as we observe how life works (or doesn’t work) for others, God communicates to us via how we are living. God uses what we hear as stimuli for what we are already facing, and what we see and hear is merely one of God’s filters through which we may see.

3.     The above two points help us to restore perspective. We think in ways that we ordinarily wouldn’t have. We step apart from our lives sufficiently to see what we might not otherwise.

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It pays to be invisible every now and then,
To remove ourselves for the sight of all women and men.

It pays to be invisible whether by day or night,
It pays to be invisible and thereby see by God’s sight.

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Only when we set ourselves apart for God’s use alone do we gain important glimpses into our world and to our true inner heart.

God uses people to speak powerfully into our lives, whether we are there with them or not.

Yes, God speaks powerfully through people, especially as we see ourselves in them.

© 2015 Steve Wickham.