Tiny speck, huge problem

The other night as I was tossing and turning, trying to find a position that I could sleep in without pain, my left eye suddenly felt like there was something in it. My first thought was, an eyelash. So, I blinked and rubbed it a bit to get the eyelash out. But the feeling didn't go away. I blinked and rubbed a little more. No success. Tried once more.When no relief came, I got up out of bed and went to the bathroom to look at my eye in the mirror. It was then about 2:00 am. I held my eye open as wide as I could, and scanned for the suspected eyelash. I didn't see anything in my eye at all! So, I asked Mom (who was still awake) if she would come look in it. She also found nothing. All the while, the painfully irritating feeling continued. There was no way I could possible go to sleep with it like that. I tried (about 8 times) splashing water into my eye in hopes that it would wash out whatever was causing the problem. That proved to be unsuccessful. I was getting more and more anxious to get whatever it was OUT of my eye, and a little scared I would have to spend the night in sleepless and painful-blinking agony. Mom then proceeded to pour cups of water into my eye as I pulled my eyelid back. But...yet again...it didn't work. Mom had the idea that we should use the flashlight and have her look again with my eyelid pulled back. About that time, I urgently had to go and lay down because my leg was doing its whole excruciating muscle spasm/cramp thing. Mom followed me to my room and we prayed together. She prayed for God to help reveal whatever the problem was in my eye. Then, as I flipped my eyelid inside out, Mom shined the flashlight and right away, spotted a tiny black speck stuck to the inside of my eyelid. Ahah! Not wanting to use her finger nail, Mom got a Q-tip, dipped it in water and then gently removed the tiny speck from my eye. Right away, the pain and irritation was gone!! :) Yay!!! What a wonderful relief it was. God had answered our prayer. When I looked at the black speck on the end of the Q-tip, I was amazed that something so small and tiny could cause such pain and utter disruption to my life. 

I cannot help but be struck with the spiritual picture this experience presents. If you look at just the tiny little speck, it really doesn't appear to be too harmful, or much of a threat. But when taken into the eye, a very sensitive part of the body, it's quite the trouble-maker. Sin can be like that in our lives. Maybe there is just one small, habitual sin we struggle with. We look at it and think, "Oh, it's not that bad...it's just a small sin... I can handle this." The sin might appear to be small, but it is never harmless. The enemy wants to deceive us into thinking things are okay, when they are really not. Many times we cannot even see the sin in our own lives! Just like when I couldn't see anything in my eye at all. It wasn't till I pulled back my eyelid and Mom shined the flashlight that the speck was revealed. For my eye, pain was the indicator that something was wrong, though I couldn't see what it was. Something was there that shouldn't be there. When we are in the Word, the Holy Spirit will speak, convict and show us when something is wrong. We have to be willing to let God strip away the blinders and shine His light into our hearts and lives. Once the sin is uncovered, it must be removed. Just because we realize we have a sin problem doesn't mean that it will just automatically be gone. Realizing the problem is just the beginning. We have to surrender it completely to God (like Mom with the Q-tip), and allow Him to purge us. We cannot do it on our own. We must rely on His strength to overcome sin.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart...see if there is any wicked way in me." (Psalm 139:23,24) 

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)