Clarity

The word is defined as "clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity".

We live in a "noisy" world. There is TV and radio and mp3's and so much other actual noise. There are work and family and fatherhood/motherhood and husband/wife and so many other roles and relationships. There are demands on our resources like "feed the poor" and "feed the family" and "get to work" and so much more. At best we have a list of potentially good things to choose from in so many areas of life that are clamoring for our attention. It provides ... "indistinctness or ambiguity" -- a lack of clarity.

I know someone (who will remain nameless to protect the guilty) who is struggling with a variety of "good" things. He wants to feel like his life means something. He wants to pursue his dreams. He feels trapped and wants to be free. He also has a wife and kids and wants to do right by them. There are things he'd like to look into and try but because he's married, has children, and bears all that responsibility, he can't. So ... he is struggling with the problem of remaining in the family. In the vacuum of everyday life, he lacks "clarity". It's so easy to pick up this thing (say, "significance") and say, "Oh, that's important" and, shortly thereafter, pick up that thing (say, "What I want to do") and say, "Oh, that's important" and, when they collide, be at a loss. It's an easy thing to do. What he needs, of course, is clarity, some way to remove the indistinction and clear out the ambiguity. How does he do that?

I found out the other day that my sister (my baby sister) has been diagnosed with cancer. I, of course, am having the reactions of a big brother ("Don't you mess with my little sister!"), but I got to thinking about the others who are more closely connected. She has a husband who deals with daily stresses at work and daily stresses at home and these demands and those wishes and ... lots of stuff. She has four kids who are floating along in normal life doing normal things in a normal world (like school, church, home life ... all those kinds of things). She has parents who love her -- amazingly even more than I do -- along with their other kids and the rest of their events and living. Then the doctor comes in and says, "You have invasive ductal carcinoma" and suddenly ...there's clarity. How stressful is work really at this point when the important person is in trouble? "Do I trade in the car for something better?" becomes a trite concern at this point. (Not suggesting he had that concern, but these are the kinds of "noise" we deal with day to day.) "Mom won't let me do what I want" suddenly gives way to "Mom is in trouble and I don't care what I want at this moment." "Should we take the grandkids on our trip to Alaska?" suddenly vanishes as an issue as "Take care of our daughter" comes to the clearest forefront. And so it goes.

Years ago my older sister was diagnosed with lupus. She was diagnosed practically on the eve of her departure for a Christian college in the U.K. The doctor told her, "Oh, no, you can't go. You have to stay here under constant care." Her reaction was fascinating. She said, "I feel bad for everyone else's reaction. They're going to think, 'How sad!' I think, 'God has spoken clearly about His will.' I now know exactly whether or not I should go to college in the U.K." Clarity.

God has a way of making things clear -- free from indistinctness or ambiguity. Very often His method is hardship, pain, and suffering. C.S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." I am quite sure that my first example above would have a sudden change of attention if such an event occurred in his life. I am quite sure that my sister and her family are much clearer right now on what is and is not important than they were a month ago when life wasn't quite so hard. Not to suggest that any of these examples are "bad people". It's just that we all get engulfed in the noise, and God is outstanding at using that megaphone of His to get our attention. Perhaps that's why James told us to "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds" (James 1:2). It is in those moments of clarity that we can see from God's perspective what is most important in the midst of what we thought was important. God is faithful that way.