No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light. (Luke 11:33-36 ESV)

What we set our eyes on influences how we think and behave. If we only view what’s bad and evil, then we will only think and act in those ways. And when we observe what’s good and holy, hopefully we mimic and sustain that goodness. Jesus warns us about darkness and how it dims our spiritual vision. He said that a little leaven will affect the whole lump of dough, meaning that it doesn’t take much for the devil to corrupt us.

We need to take precautions to protect our hearts and minds, and it begins with our eyes. What we feed our mind does matter because it will affect our spiritual and emotional health. When we start to have problems, the world will advertise its remedies: try this drink, take this drug, buy this gadget, see this specialist. Before we know it, we get ourselves tangled into a web of confusion trying to figure out how things went from bad to worse.

There is a phenomenon in healthcare called polypharmacy, when physicians prescribe multiple medications to treat a condition. Sometimes they have to prescribe more medicine to either augment or counter the effects of the other medications. And what you are left with is a patient who must remember when and how take all of their pills, making matters even more complicated than before. Now I am not saying that medicine is bad. This is just an analogy to explain what happens when we try multiple remedies but exclude Jesus. When we constantly feed on the world’s ideas and philosophies, we leave no room for the Lord’s teaching and guidance.

Dabbling in darkness dims our vision until we no longer recognize God or remember his word. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Therefore, when we fix our eyes on him, we are allowing him to light up the dark areas in our lives so they can be healed and corrected. When we surrender to his authority, we can then let his light shine through us and into our immediate community so we can be effective servants and help make a difference.