Depth Perception

Last week, I had a health assessment completed that included several vision checks. They checked to see if I could see colors from a distance. It only took me three tries to realize the black was black and not navy blue or purple. There was no problem with distance reading or even reading from a book, as long as I had my reading glasses on.

Lastly, they checked my depth perception. They had these ten groups of four little circles each that were staged to look like an electric shaver. In each group, one of the circles was supposedly 3D. Yeah, supposedly. I explained to the medical assistant that none of them looked 3D to me, so she told me to just guess. Eventually, I guess four correctly but learned, that in reality, I have no depth perception once so ever.

When I told my husband, Randy, he very matter-of-factly explained that he knew that; that he’s seen me parallel park. Who’s he kidding? He was just being nice. I don’t parallel park. When I get home and can’t just pull right in, I call him and he comes out and parks the car for me while all the neighbors watch and laugh. Now I think I’m going to send them all a memo that tells them to stop laughing at me, it’s not my fault!

Although no one in my home agrees, in my mind, this whole lack of depth perception explains a lot of things – why I fall up the stairs, why I trip over my own two feet, and why I walk into people. I am almost happy about this little diagnosis. Now maybe everyone will stop picking on me. Eh, or maybe I’ve just given them way more material to work with. And that’s okay too. I’m a sanguine. I think it means that people love me when they pick on me. I’m too naïve to know better.

We can all laugh at someone having no depth perception, because it is kind of funny, isn't it? But what spiritual depth? Would that be as funny? Eh, maybe not.

Charles Swindoll says in his book, So, You Want To Be Like Christ? that “anyone engaged in Christian ministry - and that should be ALL of us - must be a person of depth if he or she hopes to be effective” and that “the Gospel, from the lips of a shallow person, sounds hollow and insipid. But the same message uttered by a person whose waters run deep compels a curious world to look beyond the superficial.”

So how do we develop spiritual depth? I think Eugene Peterson sums it up well in The Message translation of 2 Peter 1:3… by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.

Is your spiritual depth being more fully developed? Are you spending time getting to get to know Jesus a little more intimately? If not, what is one small change that you could make this week to begin to progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him (Phil. 3:10)?