Eye Single to God

Do you find it hard to concentrate these days? My pixelated attention is drawn in so many directions — I struggle to immerse myself in a book the way I used to, and I’ve even been known to have my phone open while watching a movie. 

With that struggle on my mind, along with some personal ocular health issues, I have been pondering the phrase “an eye single to the glory of God.” It comes up frequently in the Doctrine & Covenants and was originally used by Jesus in the New Testament (Matthew 6:22, Luke 11:34) and Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 13:22). The Greek meaning for “eye single” (ἁπλοῦς haploûs) adds depth: “simple, single in which there is nothing complicated or confused; without folds, whole; good, fulfilling its office, sound.” I love completing those sentences: when our eye is single to God’s glory, distractions fall away. Things are no longer complicated or confused. We are fulfilling our office. We are sound. The scriptures promise that we will be filled with light. 

Another vision-related concept that helps me understand the idea of keeping my “eye single” is a sightline. An unobstructed view in a theater helps the audience; in a home, the sightline can emphasize the best features or create privacy. Keeping God in our sightline can help direct our actions: it’s a little easier to make that ministering visit happen or forgive that difficult family member. When we have heaven as our ultimate goal, all things are spiritual. Seeing life through a gospel lens is so beautifully expressed in D&C 6:36: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.” (I used to help my seminary students remember that verse because its numbers are exponential: God’s power magnifies ours.) 

As I’ve served in the temple recently, I’ve also been working hard to make my “ear single.” In the small space of the initiatory booth or at the veil, many voices sound simultaneously. We workers have to be constantly aware of hearing impairments, whispers, distracting chatter, and overly loud voices. I’ve learned that it isn’t just my eyes or ears, though, but my mind that has to concentrate. It’s easy to zone out during many hours of repetitive assistance, surrounded by repetitive language. I have to constantly remind my mind to focus, my ears to listen to the right source, to be single to the glory of God, to the procedures and ordinances, and to my fellow woman. Sister Tracy Browning eloquently summed up the challenge and promise of keeping our eye single to the glory of God when she said, “Friends, Jesus Christ is both the purpose of our focus and the intent of our destination. To help us to remain fixed and heading in the right direction, the Savior invites us to see our lives through Him in order to see more of Him in our lives.” 

Jesus had such a good example of this focus from his own mother. Mary’s obedience to God’s plan for her was the perfect example for her own son to follow in his life. When she said, “Be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38), her eye was single to God’s glory and plan. Jesus followed her example in submitting to his father’s will as he acquiesced: “nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done” (Luke 22:42). The book of Helaman offers us another example: Nephi’s will was so aligned that God promised him anything he asked: “It came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments. And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will. Behold, thou art Nephi, and I am God” (Helaman 10:3-6). Imagine knowing that your life was exactly according to God’s purposes, and that he knew you well enough to trust you in that way. 

What Mary and Nephi remind me is that keeping our eye single to the glory of God doesn’t just require the kind of focus that’s increasingly difficult in noisy rooms and a world of pings and posts. It requires humility and love. We know from Moses that God’s glory — on which our eye should be focused — is the immortality and eternal life of humankind. This means that we have to direct our focus outward. I particularly love C.S. Lewis’ articulation of that eternal perspective in The Weight of Glory: “It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. . .. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit. . .. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.”

As we focus on eternal perspectives, aligning our souls towards God and each other, may we find light in our eyes and to our whole being this week! 

. . . . . . . .

A photo of my eye

---

Anita Wells is the faithful root senior director at Mormon Women for Ethical Government.