Troublesome Topic: Don’t Watch an Arc Welder

Don’t watch someone weld with an arc welder or you will seriously damage your eyes. The damage is usually temporary, but it will be very painful. Does it have a special name? Of course it has a name; everything has a name. This is called a “flash burn.” One gets flash burn more quickly when looking directly at the arc of the arc welder (or looking at the sun), but If I understand correctly, it is also possible to damage the eye by simply viewing an arc welder in your peripheral vision, if you do so long enough.

In some ways, trying to not get flash burn in your eyes when you around someone who is using an arc welder is similar to trying not to get burned spiritually by seeing that which causes sexually stimulation. For the purpose of teaching a spiritual truth I will alter reality a bit in order to fit the spiritual situation. I will alter it by pretending that the only way to get flash burn is to look directly at the bright light of an arc welder without a welding helmet.

The spiritual equivalent is that I do not get burned spiritually if I do not allow any sexual stimuli to get into the very center of my vision – the part where my focus is the clearest. This is true because I can only remember clearly that which I see clearly and I can only see something clearly if it is in the center of my focus. But then there is the problem of the magnets, so I can’t allow any sexual stimuli to get even close to the center of my vision or my eyes will snap to the magnets and then I will be looking right at something that causes spiritual weakness and harms my relationship with my wife and with God.

The main point I want to make here has to do with anticipation. If I know someone is using an arc welder on the right side of the shop I need to position myself so I am not facing that direction. Regarding lust, if I know someone is coming toward me who likes to dress in ways that call attention to certain parts of her body (the magnets), I don’t even look up, or I don’t look that direction. I used to look far too often. I struggled unsuccessfully against lust for over 40 years before I learned to things I am sharing here.

Certain Places Are Predictable Environments

I work at a production facility running a machine that only requires one operator. But my machine is at an intersection of walkways, so I have people walking by me all day long. The good thing is that I usually don’t need to interact with these people walking by, so I can keep my eyes on my work without offending anyone. I have learned to use my peripheral vision to tell if a person walking by is a male or female. With God’s help and grace I have also learned to use this anticipation of danger to avoid all sexual stimuli apart from my wife. If someone wants to talk to me, they will come into my work area and that will be the signal for me to pause my machine, look them in the eye and carry on a conversation.

For me the internet is a fairly predictable place because I limit myself to doing a few basic things online. For that reason, the sites I go to in order to get done what I need to do are familiar to me. I know which sites will have the ads on the right and which ones will have them at the bottom of the screen. By anticipating the danger, I can control my vision and view only what I want to view, not what someone else wants me to view.

Other Places Are Not Predictable

Other places I go it is more difficult to anticipate the danger, therefore I am more likely to get “burned” by magnets getting too close to the center of my vision. Most public places such as stores are unpredictable in this way. I never know when someone will come into my field of vision dressed in a way that is stimulating to one degree or another. Certain types of web sites are also very unpredictable. I don’t do much on Facebook anymore because it is a big time-waster, and because I never know what my eyes will see. I used to go to You Tube to find videos about science to use in my science classes, but I don’t need to do that anymore, so I have no need to go to You Tube and my life is better for it. The problem with those sites is that even when I was not seeking sexual stimuli, I encountered it because it was a common part of that environment.

However, I am learning that it is indeed possible to anticipate the danger more often than I realized, even in seemingly unpredictable situations. For instance, in a store setting I simply assume there is danger everywhere, so I look at the floor or at the signs overhead telling what is in each isle. This may seem extreme, but it is the only thing that works for me. I want my wife to be the only source of sexual stimuli in my life and in a culture like ours, it takes some extreme measures to make that a reality. I don’t want any sexually stimulating image to be clear enough that I can remember it later. For that reason I keep all that dangerous stuff away from the center of my vision. If you don’t want to get flash burn, don’t watch someone weld with an arc welder; keep those bright and intriguing sights out of view.

The next lesson is: The Most Crucial Position on This Spiritual Battlefield Is the Home