Preaching: Eyes Wide Open is an intriguing title for a book. Where did that come from?Wilhite: I think the title is anchored in Ephesians 1, where Paul says we have every spiritual blessing in Christ, that we've been chosen to be holy and blameless in His eyes, in God's eyes. And so the question of the book is: What does it mean to live our lives, seeing ourselves as God sees us, surrendering our view of ourselves and embracing God's view of us, and just finding the freedom and the empowerment to be used to the greatest ability God could use us?
Preaching: You talk about having our eyes wide open to God, to our own identities, to change and to influence. What are the areas where you think a pastor would find some help and some benefit in this book?Wilhite: As pastors we all work with so many people who are broken and hurting. We see it all around us. Certainly in Las Vegas it's kind of ground zero for whatever's happened in our culture. So many people are hurting; they have such a distorted
perception of themselves and of God, of who He is, His love, His sovereignty, His power.
I thought if I had one opportunity to write a book for someone after he or she has become a Christian and is beginning the spiritual journey, what would it be? And that's what became
Eyes Wide Open. If I could [I wanted to] cut 10 to 15 years out of some of the pain and frustration in my own life that I experienced by just laying a resource in front of them that would help them see God clearly as a God who loves them, who cares for them—to see Christ and His grace clearly and to understand how His spirit can come into our lives.
Then [I wanted to] help them move to see their identity as the Bible describes it, that they're saints, they're priests, they're servants—all of these things are the realities of what they experience in Christ—and then challenge them to move out into their culture, out of this new identity, out of this love of God, and make a difference. My ultimate goal is to be a resource for someone starting that spiritual journey and to say: "Listen, God has a unique identity and perspective of you; and when you see it, when you embrace it, it will just set you on fire to make a difference in the lives of others and make a change in your own life."
Preaching: You talk in the book about change. How do you address that issue?Wilhite: A lot of people say, "How can you be a pastor in Las Vegas? Doesn't it just drive you crazy? All the sin, all the billboards, all the sexual promiscuity kind of right out in front of you?" I think it probably would if I thought behavior was the issue; but I think in most of our lives, it's belief that is the core issue—our belief about God and about one's self—and behavior follows out of that.
