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February 25, 2006
What Do You See?
I remember many years ago when I was a teenager that a traveling evangelist came to our church to preach a revival. I don't remember his name. I don't remember any titles to the sermons he preached or the text of any of them. But, I shall never forget an illustration he did one night. He asked my pastor to hold one end of a white bed sheet and then asked this question to our congregation, "What do you see?"
The answer I heard and the answer that everyone gave was, "I see a black spot in the middle of the bed sheet!"
The evangelist asked if we were sure. Whereupon, the people responded, "Yes!"
He then asked, "Do you want to know what I see?"
We all said, "Yes!"
He said, "I see a white bed sheet" and then he paused for what appeared to be a long time. We all had puzzled looks on our faces and seemed to really enjoy our stares as we wondered why he would see just the sheet. And then he quoted to us the only scripture I can remember him using. "To the pure in heart all things are pure."
He went on to say, "It is amazing with this entire bed sheet up here, pretty, white, and clean that all you noticed was one dark spot. But, isn't that how we mostly operate. We concentrate so much on the negative that we miss the beauty of the positive and the good in life." He didn't want us to overlook the spot but he also didn't want us to overlook the clean, white bed sheet.
What do you see?
Posted by Bishop at February 25, 2006 02:44 AM