The Eyes of God

Recently, I have been reading Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings (Go Rin no Sho) as translated and interpreted by Scot Conway of Guardian Martial Arts (available for download here: http://www.guardianacademymembers.com/articlesfiverings.pdf).

In the chapter entitled “Musashi’s Nine Precepts”, the first precept states that “One should not think dishonestly.”

It seems a simple enough precept, especially if you consider Mr. Conway’s interpretation of “Don’t fool yourself.”

It simply means that we always think in terms of truth and reality. We think in terms of what is real and not by what is not real.

I can understand the practicality of this in martial arts, where thinking unrealistically can literally cost you your life. You do not engage a superior opponent for example, without taking a realistic assessment of the opponent’s skills, as well as your own. Many warriors have met their untimely defeat and/or demise at the hands of more skillful opponents simply because they have not taken the time to “think honestly”, and have let pride or some other uncontrolled emotion blind them to reality.

This is interesting because the Bible (especially the New Testament) always refers to sin as being caught in the “powers of darkness.”

I would think it a powerful metaphor to use “darkness” to describe untruth.

Musashi’s fifth precept is related, though a little more specific: “Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.”

This is where things become more interesting.

Again, the simplicity of this statement might make its meaning seem obvious. Humans, as a rule, want gain more than loss. So one would think that humans have a pretty good understanding of what constitutes gain and loss.

Conway explains that apparently, this is not the case at all. What most of us consider “gain” is actually loss, and vice-versa.

One example that he used (which I related to very much), is that of obesity.

Obese people are an example of those people who think in terms of short term gain. They are the kind of people who will eat delicious, unhealthy food now, and worry about the consequences later.

As a person who once reached a maximum weight of over two-hundred pounds at a height of 5”9, I know how it feels to be obese. And I certainly know about having a mindset of an obese person.

I distinctly remember convincing myself that it would be a “waste” not to eat that one last slice of cake, or that one last morsel of meat, or one more scoop of ice cream or some other dessert, or not finishing the rest of the bag of chips.

I have exchanged short term gain (in terms of the pleasure of eating delicious food), for long term loss (in terms of health and back problems due to overweight).

In other words, I have failed Musashi’s fifth precept of being able to distinguish between worldly gain and loss.

But that is not all that I have failed.

The Bible likewise admonishes those who think they have “gained” from living a worldly, self-indulgent life.

The Messiah summed it up in one statement:

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?

(Luke 9:25 NLT)

It is all a matter of how broad one’s viewpoint is.

The phrase “winning the battle, but losing the war” (attributed to Sun Tzu’s Art of War, though I have not seen it written like that in the translations that I have been reading) is an apt analogy for this.

Gaining short term benefits in exchange for long term failures is unacceptable in war. One must always be ready to make sacrifices for the sake of the greater good.

Losing the war is NOT an option.

And what is the Christian life but a war for your own soul?

Scripture says that God is both beginning and end. This is a way of saying that God sees all of the flow of time. God is above time and therefore timeless.

What kind of wisdom does a person who sees all of the flow of time have? Each and every permutation of causality is laid bare. Both good consequences and bad are revealed: nothing is hidden.

If such a thing were indeed possible, then that person would be in the best position to steer all of creation into the best possible scenario for all time and beyond.

Add to that the qualities Scripture attributes to God: that of being a just, loving and merciful Creator.

What a wonderful thing it would be to see, even for just a moment, through the eyes of God!

I look around me and I see people indulging in their own selfishness: people beating the red light to shave off a few minutes of waiting time, at the risk of getting involved in an accident. I see people splurging whole month’s salaries or allowances on things that have no real and lasting value. I see husbands and wives commit adultery for the sake of a few moments of pleasure to the detriment of their marriage and children. I see companies and corporations risk the health of our planet just to harvest that much more resources to make that bigger a profit.

God looked at the world and saw sheep without a shepherd.

And so He sent one, not just to teach His ways, but to live, die and be reborn as an example of what a person who is one with God can do.

As I finish writing this, I have already witnessed the news footages capturing the destruction in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the nation of Japan, Musashi’s homeland and now one of the most advanced countries on our planet.

The world will look at this tragedy and say: “Such loss of life and property! What will be the cost of it?”

Will it only be God who will look and ask, as He had countless times before: “What else do I need to do to catch their attention? When will they turn to Me?”

God has all of eternity to wait for humanity’s answer.

As for us? We have only but time.