Na, Na, Na, Na, Hey, Hey, Hey, Good-bye!

I've worn glasses or contacts since the seventh grade, only being able to see the big "E" on the eye chart without some type of optical help. My eyesight had just become a way of life, working around contact solutions, eye drops, and cleaning glasses lenses. So, when I was given the opportunity to accept a remarkable gift of tremendously discounted LASIK eye surgery, you'd think I'd jump at the chance. And yet, I must confess, I hesitated.

My first reaction was, "I'm not sure if I want to get LASIK because sometimes, I just like wearing my glasses." Yep, I feel sheepish just writing it. I quickly determined that if I was in one of my scholarly moods that required wearing some chic glasses, I could just buy a fake pair of glasses because, as a friend enlightened me, "Wearing a fake pair of glasses is about as dumb as turning down the gift of eye surgery."

Once I had resolved that issue, I was next faced with some very real fears about this surgery. Granted every person I had ever talked to who had this surgery only raved about how easy and revolutionary it was, yet I was uncertain that I might be "that one person" who experienced the dramatic side effects. Watching the "informative (we don't want you to be able to sue us)" DVD didn't really help either. It was basically 15 minutes describing just about everything that could go wrong including displacing my cornea, having my eyes feel "gritty," and even blindness. My favorite quote was from my doctor when he said, "You may smell a burning smell during the surgery. Don't panic. It's completely normal." Normal . . . uh huh.

The part that really stuck out to me, however, was when they said on the video, "Know that you are choosing to have an irreversible, permanent procedure done to your eyes . . ." They were right. I was choosing this. I was choosing to undergo surgery along with all the potential risks that came with it. And when I was struggling with all those risks, I read one other key piece of information on my papers. "The only way to completely avoid the risks involved with LASIK is to not have the surgery." And there it was. The choice was mine. I could walk away from the opportunity due to my fears of the possible detriments that could occur. Or, I could choose to have the surgery, believing that the potential reward was well worth the work and risk involved.

As you can see from my pictures, I chose to have the surgery (I'm waving good-bye to my glasses). And, as you can see from my subsequent after picture (taken from my phone right after the surgery) IT WAS AMAZING!!! Truly, REMARKABLE!!! The whole world looks different . . . clearer, brighter . . . night and day. To think that I almost passed up the opportunity to be healed, changed, more whole, well, I'm saddened to think about it.

Like He does so many times, God used the situation to get past my eyes and point to an even bigger condition of my heart. If I were honest, there are some areas of hurt and pain from my past that while I may have done some preliminary work to get them to a place where they are "functioning" from day to day, I've not committed to pressing through, taking the risk to allow Jesus to write my prescription and to follow the rigors of the healing process whatever they may be. I'll glamorize my hurt like my glasses, a bizarre dysfunction to desire to hold on to them. I've settled for a life of myopic living, seeing enough to get by and dealing with crutches and "glasses" to get me through.

After my surgery, I'm feeling a new empowerment to embrace the risk when Jesus is involved, acknowledging the work and potential complications, but reaching for the reward that is far beyond what I could have ever imagined.