Professor Lets Vision Impairment Become Part of His Testimony
Before he touches a mound of clay, pencil, or any tool to create art, Liberty University professor Todd Smith, chair of the Department of Studio & Digital Arts (SADA), has made it a habit to ask God to use his hands and mind to create for His glory.
“With anything I make or draw, I give the Lord the credit for it because I have to trust Him in order to do it,” said Smith, who came to Liberty in 2002 to teach studio art and graphic design. He helped develop the SADA programs and is the founding director of the Liberty University Art Museum and Permanent Collection.
In Spring 2017, Smith was asked to sculpt a bust of Jesus Christ at Liberty’s Good Friday Convocation. About 10,000 students watched as he created the art onstage during the worship. But something wasn’t right. As he focused intently on his art taking shape, his vision began to blur.
“I didn’t know it, but I was having a vitreous detachment in my right eye,” Smith said. “The whole time I was doing it, I was realizing my eyes getting blurry, and not long after, I had a full-fledged retinal detachment.”
Describing it like a curtain, Smith said he lost total sight in his right eye. He underwent a complex surgery so he could regain partial eyesight. Two years later, he experienced another vitreous detachment in his left eye and underwent an emergency procedure. More recently, he developed cataracts in both eyes. Smith now regularly wears sunglasses indoors to help with his light sensitivity and still encounters clouded vision and spots or “floaters.”
Todd Smith sculpts a bust of Jesus Christ at Liberty’s Good Friday Convocation in 2017, when his vision began to blur and the first retinal detachment occurred.
“It’s very difficult to see out of the right eye nowadays, and my left eye has large dark areas that move by my field of vision; sometimes it looks like a comet going by or a bug flying,” Smith said. “What I used to do naturally I took for granted, and now I really have to trust the Lord for it and put in the extra effort to do what I want, which includes my art. I want to keep trying however I can.”
Even in a profession that relies heavily on his eyesight, Smith is determined to use his impaired vision as a God-given opportunity.
“Because of my sight issues, there are practical limitations that, if I allowed, could be discouraging. However, what I’ve decided to do is to pray and ask God, ‘How can You use this for Your glory?’”
Smith openly shares with his students about his sight impairment, the effects it has on him, and his perspective on his life’s work in the midst of it.
“I’m the professor who walks into the classroom with sunglasses on, and I have to explain why, and I always tell them, ‘This is what’s happened, but God is using this and I have to depend on Him, and I want to challenge you to allow God to use whatever you’re facing.’ The students see me dealing with this in class, and they see the joy I take in working with them. In a small way, I’m having an impact and showing students that life goes on even when you have challenges.”
In recent years, Smith has begun working with students to test designs in 3D technology — including books, virtual reality, and eye-tracking software — to find potential benefits for others who are visually impaired.
“Christ followers should be really innovative in helping to create tomorrow,” Smith said. “What has happened to my vision has made me think of how I can help a person who has a sight disability go into the virtual environment and maybe create and express who they are. … Ephesians 2:10 says we are God’s masterpiece, His work of art, created anew in Christ to do good works that He has already planned. God designed me to make artwork, to do good works He has planned for me, so why can’t I use what I’m dealing with to help be involved in His work? When we face a challenge or setback, I think God can use it as an avenue for ministry to reach others.”
