Having Good Eyes: Impacting Our Souls by How We View the World and Its People
There is a lot of power to be found in outrage. There is a lot of money to be made in creating divisions and acrimony between people. We are a very polarized nation and world right now, not because things are historically so bad, but because, for those seeking power, influence, and money, making things seem bad works to advance their objectives. I recently read an article about a very conservative influencer and her husband. She became disillusioned when something she posted was lambasted by those she thought supported her. Instead, they turned on her. She stopped making videos because she was weary of always being negative and promoting one point of view as supreme. Her husband, however, was totally frustrated by her position because he said the more negative and angry a video was, the more views it got, which meant more money.
Think about that for a moment. His motivation was not to proclaim what he considered a righteous cause; it was to make as much money as he could. He is probably a part of the vast majority in the influencer world, and, sadly, his perspective on drawing in people is correct. Negativity always gets more attention. That is why it dominates social media and mainstream news.
Jesus said an interesting thing about the human eye: “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23 NIV 2011)
Notice His emphasis is not that the eyes are the window to the soul. Rather, the eyes are critical to the condition of our soul. How we tend to view things has an impact on how we think and live. If we tend to view everything from a negative slant, our lives will become darker and darker. But if we have eyes that see the positive and the potential, then the result will be much light in how we live our lives. We will be much healthier.
From a teaching I heard recently, I think that Jesus is calling us to see through His eyes, through godly lenses. He sees the positive in people because people are created by God for the purpose of serving in His Kingdom. And He loves each and every one. We often have this warped perspective that God is mad most of the time about what is going on in the world He created. And that has gotten twisted a bit further by people looking for an excuse to be angry about a lot of things and at a lot of people with whom they disagree or whose lifestyles they don’t approve. Recently, I was in a conversation with a Muslim (now secular) who said he had always been taught that Allah was always angry and or on the verge of anger. This is a popular conception of God, even among many Christians. He’s angry, so we can be angry, too.
An examination of Jesus’ life, however, paints a very different picture. He saw potential in everyone—he had good eyes that allowed Him to love and serve people, even those for whom He would have preferred different lifestyles and beliefs. Think of the people with whom He interacted—tax collectors, notorious for greed and cheating; people rejected by the local culture, such as the woman at the well, the woman with perpetual menstrual bleeding, the woman caught in adultery (I know there are questions about this text, but the story seems to be very consistent with the character of Jesus), and lepers; the demoniac who lived in isolation; and a Roman soldier who represented the oppressor of the Jewish people. He had good eyes which radiated light in His life. What if that were the example we followed in our lives?
I can relate to having bad eyes. My mom was a very negative person. I used to joke that she could never find a silver lining in any cloud. That negativity took root in me. I have battled it for most of my life. However, years ago I began to realize it is not a battle I can win on my own. I need the Lord’s help to see like He sees. I need to ask for fresh eyes regularly. And it has helped that I now see the Lord differently; not as One who is continually angry and disappointed but is rather continually hopeful and merciful.
We as followers of Jesus need to look at people and the world through His eyes. For how we view them is likely how they think God views them. So, we need healthier eyes. We are His witnesses to the deep love He has for all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, economic status, or world view. Rather than focusing on what is so bad in the world, we can see the good that is happening, and how God’s Kingdom is advancing despite the evil in our midst. Having good eyes changes our perspective so that we can live in hope rather than despair. Jesus is our example of how best to do that.
Until next time . . .
© Jim Musser 2026
