Discovering Your Blind Spots
Honest and life-giving conversations about blind spots will lead to transformative change and spiritual growth
Greensboro, NC – To the outside world, examining and exposing your own blind spots can be viewed more as a weakness than a courageous step toward change in your life and relationships. However, true transformative change starts when we finally face our weaknesses—and we all have them. Uncovering our own unseen areas for spiritual growth is impossible without the help of God and trusted individuals. What does Jesus see that we tend to miss, and what does he think about the threats that blind spots pose?
With the release of their book, Blind Spots: What You Don’t See Can Hurt You (New Growth Press/July 29, 2019), authors Tim Riddle and Fil Anderson discuss Jesus’s primary mission to expose the deadly nature of blind spots, sharing how he alone has the cure. They urge followers of Christ to engage in honest and life-giving conversations about blind spots: what they are, why they exist, how to identify and remove them, how to keep them from returning, and how to point them out in others.
The authors define a blind spot as anything that stands in the way of being all that God has intended for our lives. In introducing the book, Riddle and Anderson write, “Yes, many of those blind spots are sins, but others are rooted in ignorance, immaturity, circumstances, and sometimes the sins of others against us. Sometimes, they are things we don’t see because God has not yet revealed them to us. But blind spots of many kinds may fuel our fears of stepping out in faith to use the talents and gifts God has given us.”
The inspiration behind Blind Spots came as the authors were reflecting on the challenge of spiritual growth. As they looked at their own personal lives, they realized obstacles in their own growth were usually due to a blind spot. Both consider coming together to write the book as being one of the most rewarding things they have done. In the process they have become each other’s blind spot partner and have developed a safe place to freely talk about potential blind spots they each may have.
Through sharing their own stories to uncover blind spots, the authors demonstrate how spiritual growth only happens in the context of seeing and acknowledging our own flaws. While Riddle and Anderson note the importance of community in dealing with blind spots, they emphasize the lasting, gospel change of the Spirit. By exploring the different ways we unknowingly sabotage ourselves and our relationships, Blind Spots guides readers toward depending on the Spirit for help.
“The Holy Spirit is the revealer and healer of our blind spots,” says Riddle. “In this book, we talk more in detail about the work of the Spirit and how the Spirit may work through others to help identify our blind spots.”
“The goal of the spiritual journey is the transformation of our self,” says Anderson. “This requires knowing both our self and God. Both are essential if we are to discover our true identity as those who are in Christ, because the self is where we meet God.”
The authors’ hope in releasing Blind Spots is that readers would see beyond the challenges preventing them from living fully and freely. Both know this is a journey that requires a combination of humility, trust, openness to change, and a willingness to submit to the Holy Spirit.
Blind Spots: What You Don’t See Can Hurt You By Tim Riddle and Fil Anderson July 29, 2019 / Retail Price: $15.99 Print ISBN: 978-1-948130-59-2 / E-book ISBN: 978-1-948130-60-8 RELIGION/Christian Life/Spiritual Growth
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