The Eye

What I've come to realize lately is that I think for the majority of us Christians we let a bit too much slide.  I'm going to be bold and say we have let the world impact us so much that we have come to accept things as "okay" just because society says they are.  As an example:  I love Nicki Minaj.  She is a sick rapper and also has a really cool stage persona.  However the majority of her songs are about sex and drinking AND if they are not then she at least probably curses in them.  But I listen to them anyway.  I use the excuses of "well as long as I don't say those words, it's fine," or "I'll just listen to the edited version," or "c'monnn it can't be THAT bad for me to listen to.. I mean it's on the RADIO."  But the truth is, the songs DO impact me.  They make me numb to topics and language and maybe in an unfortunate circumstance they cause me to slip.  And just because society thinks it's not that bad to watch a show with sexual content, tell a white lie to get out of something, or "vent" about a particular friend does not mean that God thinks those things are okay.  So are we following the guidelines the world gives us or the guidelines God gives us?

Today in my physiological psychology class we were learning about the human eye.  In the retina are photoreceptors (rods or cones, for those of you familiar with the topic) that have the job of detecting light and sending the information to the brain.  Specifically for the cones, they are responsible for color.

eye

Bare with me.. we're going into a little more detail now but I'll try and simplify it.  Now on the cones are proteins called opsin.  Attached to the opsin is retinal.  When a photon (the smallest packet of light energy) is received, the retinal changes structure.  If you look at the specific diagram below, the retinal is the long chain looking thing (picture 1) and when light is detected the chain goes up (picture 2).

process called isomerization

This basic mechanical process that I'll be referring to is called isomerization.  Now, thinking back to high school chemistry let's all remember what color actually is.  The color that you see is the wavelength of light that is reflected back.  So a green coffee mug absorbs all of the colors except for green.  It reflects green back and so that is what we see (for it is detected by the photoreceptors and isomerization occurs).  Black is the absence of light.  A black object absorbs ALL of the wavelengths of light and reflects none back (hence why you are hotter in a black T-shirt).  White, on the other hand, is light.  It absorbs NONE of the wavelengths of light and reflects ALL of them back.

When we are in a pitch dark room for a long time, there is no light activating our photoreceptors.  Therefore, all of them are in the "ready" position.  That is why when  you suddenly turn the lights on it hurt your eyes because ALL of your photoreceptors are being stimulated at the same time and ALL are going through isomerization simultaneously.

Also we go through something called visual pigment bleaching.   If we were to stare, without moving our eyes, on one thing for long enough it would eventually "disappear."  This is due to the fact that the individual opsin proteins that are directly focused on the color are ALL undergoing isomerization.  Basically, they are being overly activated and they need a "time out" (when the color disappears) to recollect themselves.  Then they can start being activated again.  This does not happen often because our eyes are CONSTANTLY making small movements.  It is very hard for us to actually stare at something without moving our eyes at all.  Try this little test.  Stare at the small blue dot without moving your focus.  If you are doing it correctly it probably keeps "disappearing" and "reappearing."

Due to this visual pigment bleaching, if you were to be in a completely white/bright room for days, ALL of your photoreceptors would be going through isomerization.  So when you left the room, you would have trouble interpreting color for some time.  The color around you would literally "disappear" because your photoreceptors need that "time out" to regenerate.

Okay now I will talk about what was striking me as a "Jesus point" today in class.  In the Bible, God is often referred to as light and the world/sin is often referred to as darkness.  When we are completely absorbed by the world (like being in a dark room), it hurts us when God flips on the light and shows us our sin.  It is a painful process that makes us want to stay in the dark.  We don't want to deal with the process of becoming accustomed to the light.

I would say most of us, as Christians, spend our lives in a bubble that looks much like a normal, lit room.  It is bright, but we can still see all of the dark colors.

However, we are called to live lives in the white, bright room.  We are called to be so absorbed by Jesus that all we see is light light light!  A world where all of our photoreceptors are in a constant state of stimulation.  And when we step out into the world, we do not even conform to seeing the dark colors because we are in a state of visual pigment bleaching!

We need to allow Jesus to take control of every part of our body and mind (just like the light room takes control of every photoreceptor).  As soon as we let the world's darkness come into our focus is when we start to fall apart--even as harmless as it may seem.

So maybe listening to a Nicki Minaj song doesn't seem like the worst thing ever, but if I could choose between allowing myself to be kept pure and "bleached" to the world, then I would rather abstain from listening to her.  I don't want to become numb to anything.

Whose guidelines are you following?