What’s Wrong With My Tunnel Vision?

What’s Wrong With My Tunnel Vision?

tunnel vision: noun

constriction of the visual field resulting in loss of peripheral vision
extreme narrowness of viewpoint : narrow-mindedness
single-minded concentration on one objective

Sometimes tunnel vision is a bad thing, like in definitions 1 and 2 above. This week, I have the definition 3 type of tunnel vision. It is performance week at school, and I am the drama teacher. To complicate matters, I suggested a mystery dinner theater this semester, which means not only a play, but a dinner, reservations, a host, servers, a big clean-up, games, prizes … I wake up at 2:00 a.m. wondering how to arrange tables so everyone can see … and hear; I spend my lunch hour running lines with students who are unsure of how to say something; I eat dinner agonizing over the price per ticket–Is it enough? Is it too much?; and I lose track of my evening trying to remember what I have forgotten. My brand of tunnel vision is the fast-track to stress!

It’s all in God’s capable hands, right? My team prays daily for the practical things, that all will go smoothly and according to plan, and also that He will use the whole event for His glory. After all, it is much easier to get an unsaved family member or friend to come to a mystery dinner theater production than to come to church. We pray that He will receive our loaves and fish and grow them into something useful for His purpose. Yes, it is all in His most capable hands.

Even knowing all that, the details of the project are all-consuming in my mind right now.

What do the scriptures say?

There are scriptures about tunnel vision.

In Psalm 27:4, King David declares, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”

Matthew 6:33-34 quotes Jesus, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).

The right kind of tunnel vision

I suppose there are all kinds of things in the world to cause us to have tunnel vision. That is probably the secret, right there–things in the world. Job, family, studies, plans, and the like, can consume one’s thought process. I guess my tunnel vision would be more beneficial if it were spiritually focused:

Philippians 4:8-9 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

I would gladly trade the stress of my tunnel vision for the peace of God’s vision. I’m going to try …

God bless you and give you His vision.