My Fitting for God Glasses

Recently, I had an appointment to get my eyes checked and fitted for my new prescription for contacts.  If you've never worn glasses or contacts, God bless you!  Every year, I have to sit in the chair, and look through an enormous instrument while the doctor asks questions like, "Which is more clear? Image one or two? Three or four? Five or six?"  Each questions elicits a response from me to indicate which lens adjustment best fits my current eyesight.  At times, I tend to stumble when I'm trying to decide which adjustment really is more clear to me.  I feel pressured to answer in a timely manner, as if there is a prize to be won if I answer quickly. Some of the adjustment choices are very obvious and easy to answer because of the vast difference in the clarity of the lens to me.  Other ones are so slight that I need to look at each one again to make sure that I am choosing the best lens with which to view my world. Only I can make the choice--after all, they are my eyes and nobody else's.  My contacts and/or glasses are a necessity to my life because I really can't see without them.  My contacts allow me to see tangible reality anywhere I look.  If my prescription isn't current, then my world will become fuzzy as my eyesight declines.  The tangible things of life around me become less vivid and more blurry and I can become hazardous behind the wheel of an automobile.  I'm realizing more and more that the Holy Spirit has been trying to get me to slow down and listen to Him so He can adjust my spiritual eyes.  We all desperately need God glasses, even if we don't wear glasses in the natural. If I don't learn to look at people and the circumstances in my life through my God glasses, I usually make mistakes in filtering the information at hand.  I'll explain--when I taught school, occasionally I would hand out a fun worksheet for my class to work on as I graded papers, or as a reward for good behavior.  One type of worksheet I remember is one in which you would have to color by number in order to find the "hidden image" on the page.  Before coloring, the image would be somewhat hidden in all of the other shapes and things on the page.  Occasionally, one of the children would be able to spot the image without even coloring the other things around it to make it more obvious, which is not an easy task.  It requires being able to alter the way you are viewing the whole picture so your brain can translate what is actually there for your eyes. We all tend to process, or translate, information through our individual filters.  My filter can be healthy and debris-free and filter what I hear, see, feel, and experience very nicely.  But occasionally, my filter can become clogged from just living life.  Difficulty, bitterness, unforgiveness,  and even grief,  can clog my filter and cause me to misjudge and misinterpret people--myself included.  My love-walk then becomes very stale and unattractive to those who know me well.  I can become easily offended, harsh in the way I communicate, and expect so much from myself and others that I set everyone up for failure.  1 Corinthians 13:7-13 states so beautifully what I am talking about.  My life is set on a trajectory for growth.  When I was younger, I couldn't always understand and comprehend certain things that I am able to now. My cognitive abilities have been stretched and have grown over the years. When I celebrate a few more birthdays, I will know and understand more than I do now.  Each day, each month, each year, the Lord stretches and teaches me more and more.  All I have to do is listen and look for His lessons.  I have to be willing to sit down at my desk and pay attention to the worksheets that my Teacher places before me.  I don't always listen.  I don't always look.  But still He is patient with me and when I am unfaithful, He remains faithful.  He knows that I am wrapped in flesh and blood and have a tendency to be a slow and sometimes rebellious student.  However, when I do listen, and look, and take a shot at looking  beyond reality, the things I learn are amazing.  I find Him when I look through my God glasses.  I find compassion when I stop to put myself in the place of someone who is behaving in an unbecoming manner.  I find peace when I can push aside an annoyance or irritation to actually see the heart of a matter.  When I filter situations through my God glasses, I find the strength to forgive and love people regardless of the ways in which they behave.  I have the ability to extend to people the benefit of the doubt.  I want to extend grace, so I can receive grace, because I know I need grace extended to me.  I'm learning that some of the things that throw me off are preference issues and not necessarily sin issues in a person's life, or my own life for that matter.  I'm praying to really see people and situations through His eyes, my God glasses, so I can respond in ways that are pleasing to Him.  My marriage is dependent upon my ability to "see" beyond what I may interpret in my husband's tone of voice or body language.  Song of Solomon 2:15 says it's the little foxes that spoil the vine.  Those little foxes can be irritants and annoyances and assumptions that prove deadly to a relationship if they are not dealt with properly at the time.  The little things grow into big issues and offenses and before you know it, you're in trouble.  The little foxes litter our filters and pretty soon, we realize that it's been way too long since we have allowed the Holy Spirit to fit us for God glasses.  When I was young, glasses weren't a cool accessory.  But the older I've gotten, they have become very trendy.  Now people wear them as an accessory instead of a necessity because they find them attractive.  I'm thinking that God glasses need to become the next trend in churches and friendships and relationships in general.  In my humble opinion, nothing is more attractive on my husband than when he is wearing his God glasses.  And nothing is more life-giving to relationships than when we filter our lives and the lives of others through our God glasses.  So in 2012, I think one of my top resolutions this year will be to give the Holy Spirit permission to fit my eyes for God glasses daily, if need be.  Let me encourage you to make an appointment, too, if you need a new pair.  Who knows--at my age, I may even need bifocal God glasses! Blessings to you and your families in 2012! 

Merry Christmas to me!

I remember when I was a little girl, how the Christmas season would mesmerize me.  I guess I've always been somewhat of an "Anne Shirley" kind of girl--a bit dramatic for my own good at times(my boys can attest to that).  It's not difficult for me to completely lose myself in the world of a good book or a movie and feel almost every emotion of the character that draws me.  So, as a child, it was natural and effortless to insert myself into the whole idea of what Christmas represented to me back then.  Let me explain. I always wanted to be one of those TV kids who was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. I would imagine that my mom and dad let me sleep on a beautiful couch in front of the fireplace, and the candles would cast a beautiful dim light in the room.   I would stay awake as long as I could, but just as I drift off to sleep, I would be gently awakened by someone stirring in the room.  Then, I would see him.  Somehow, he would know that I was no longer asleep and would turn and look at me.  He might even address me by name, because everyone knows that Santa knows the names of all of the kids in the world.  And we would have this conversation and it would be so magical and cool and his eyes really would twinkle at me as we talked. You get the picture.  I'm not a child anymore, but recently I have been feeling the Holy Spirit calling me back to my girlhood ways of accepting certain Scriptural things for what they really are.  I've been thinking about what Jesus said in Mark 10:15, " 'Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in.' Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them." How many times do I complicate the issues of life to the point of not being able to take hold of the things I need from Him?  The very things available to me that Jesus died to give me seem so hard to attain because I've created so many hoops for me to have to jump through to get to them.  This is not at all what He had in mind as He laid in the manger.  It's not what He desperately wanted for me as He was hanging on the cross enduring unspeakable pain that I will never understand.  He came and became just like me.  He was a baby, he was a child, he was a teenager. He experienced disappointment, disillusionment, betrayal, and fear.  He knows what it's like to pray desperately for God to answer one way, only to be answered in a way that runs contrary to what the flesh wants.  So, this Christmas, I'm going to purpose in my heart to be a little girl again.  My daddy was larger than life then, so if he told me anything at all, I believed it and never dreamed of doubting what he said.  How much more can I trust Someone Who took my place and hung and died on a cross so I wouldn't have to?  If He tells me that I don't have to live with guilt, then I am a fool if I hang on to it any longer.  If He tells me that He died to set me free from the law of sin and death, then I'm really free from it. If He tells me that He hasn't given me a spirit of fear, but one of love, power, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7), then why would I not believe Him and walk in that?  I feel certain He would pinky-promise me.  My earthly daddy would have. So, this Christmas, I'm giving myself an unusual gift.  I'm going to allow myself to be a little girl again and throw my heart on the altar and believe Jesus when He tells me He has already given me everything I need that is suited to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).  I will become one of those little girls that couldn't resist running up to Him when He walked on the dusty soil far across the sea.  I can imagine myself taking a running jump and landing in His arms and His smile warms my heart and I know instantly that He loves me.  I will allow myself to be completely captivated by Him this Christmas.  I know He is unlikely to come down my chimney dressed in a red suit and boots, and if I sleep on my couch on the 24th, I doubt if I'll awaken to see Him working diligently to place gifts under our tree. After all, He is the gift. But I'm pretty sure that He does know me by name and that He loves to have conversation with me.  And I even believe that His eyes really do twinkle.  The Santa of my youth has long been replaced with a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting Father, a Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).  My prayer is that you will see Him with me.  Merry Christmas!