Blind spots are areas where a person's view is obstructed. I still remember the shock I experienced when my driver's ed instructor directed me to stop and look in all my mirrors. I did so and saw nothing. Then he told me to look over my shoulder. To my shock, I discovered a large, quite visible, station wagon parked very near the car. It was in my blind spot. Though I had carefully looked into the mirrors, I could not see what was so clearly there. My view was obstructed, and if we were both traveling along at sixty miles per hour, my blind spot could have quite easily caused a disaster. I'm sure that quite a few car wrecks have been caused by a person not checking his blind spot. But blind spots are not limited to cars. People have blind spots too.
There may be areas of our lives in which we have major problems, but we cannot see them at all. How is this possible? It may be that we do not see our problem simply because of ignorance. As I did not have the knowledge to look just over my shoulder while driving, we may not think to examine a certain area in our life. But why do we remain ignorant? A person should eventually grow to understand what he is missing. So why doesn't we? How can we persist, never thinking to look over our shoulders.
We do not see our blind spots because we do not want to see them. We want to think of ourselves as good and having it all together. Admitting that we have a week spot crushes our pride. "How could I have come so far and yet have this fatal weakness? Surely, it must not really be a problem." So we reason away our blind spots, securing for them a place of permanence in our lives.
Another reason why we cannot see our blind spots is that we are too distracted by the blind spots of others. We "see the speck that is in [our] brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in [our] own eye" Matthew 7:3. Being distracted by the weakness of others and assuming ourselves to be so much better keeps us from truly dealing with the needs of our heart. So we fail to give attention to those spots that are so easily hidden from us.
I once knew a person who was constantly calling the character of other individuals in his acquaintance into question, making ridiculously overstated accusations about people. But at the same time this person was both socially awkward and in many ways self absorbed. As I wondered how someone could be so blind to his own faults but so quick to focus on other people's ills, I realized that this was exactly what I was doing. By focusing my attention on his problems, I was not giving thought to may own.
We can see other people's blind spots because we are willing to accept that they are sinners and that God is still working on them. We would reduce our own blind spots if we were willing to judge ourselves not only with the same scrutiny that we judge others but with a greater scrutiny. God is not hiding our blind spots from us. We are simply not willing to look at them. And this refusal could quite easily lead to a disaster far worse than any ever experienced on an expressway.
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Do not forsake the gatherings of believers... It is sometimes good to rely on the body of believers to help us see our blind spots. Gentle admonishing is good at the right time. 3 Believers: Bob, Bill and Don. Bob went to Bill to complain about an issue with Don's walk. Bill simply said: 'Why are you telling me this'? 'If Don needs help in an area of his walk, you should address that with him.' This is very simplified but I think you get the drift. We want to avoid things like gossip and also learn to lovingly speak the truth with our family in Christ.
:*)
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