Cup of Grace

 Life Lenses

If you’ve ever been to the eye doctor, you’ve probably experienced when they put a big metal mask in front of your face and proceed to flip through different lens options and combinations until you can see clearly. Many times they’re going back and forth and back and forth because it’s hard to tell the difference between one or the other.

We all walk through life with lenses, whether you’re wearing a pair of glasses or not. They’re in how we see the world, the experiences we’ve had that give us first hand knowledge in different areas. New lenses drop down in front of us, altering that understanding or personal perspective. 

These are some lenses I have in front of me that have shaped the way I understand, empathize and see life:

Being an only child

Attending 6 different schools between K-12th

Having a parent with a mental illness

Having a parent with stage 4 cancer

Playing sports

Moving to new places and knowing no one

Teaching elementary students

Being married and having kids

Most recently the lens that dropped down in front of my eyes was losing my dad. 

All of these things significantly shape the way I think about things, who I relate to, and the decisions I make. 

Do we have any in common? Are there some differences? I think about how the common ones mean that we can empathize with one another and support one another. Some of these things are hard. When we experience something new or challenging, it broadens our capacity to walk alongside others going through the same things. 2 Corinthians 1 talks about how Christ comforts us in our trials and struggles so that we in turn can comfort those around us who may be going through the same thing. 

It wasn’t until I lost my dad that I truly understood how many friends and family members have felt walking through the deep grief and life changes that come from losing a parent. As much as there is pain, there is also the gift of community and being able to relate to one another and bear one another’s burdens.

When we have different lenses it shows how the church functions as a body. Not only do we have different gifts and skills, but we also have different experiences. God uses those differences so that we are full and multifaceted as a church family. There is beauty in differences. We come together as a family often despite differences and learn how to love one another as Christ loves.

Over time the lenses are added to, perspective and understanding grows and shifts. But all the while, we need something (someone) to hold fast to and who holds us fast. So that while life throws new things at us, we won’t be blinded by and lean on our own understanding. We would get our prescription wrong if we didn’t have the correct training to give us a clear vision. (Prov 3:5)

Those constants are who I am in Christ, that I believe I am who He says I am, and He is who He says He is:

I am a sinner.

I am saved by grace.

I am a child of God.

I have a hope and a future.

He is Holy.

He is Just.

He is True.

He is my creator, He knows me and He loves me.

He is love.

These things are what I must cling to first. Because these things are stable and sure, I can let the experiences God gives add to my life, add to my understanding, add to my disappointment, add to my strengthening. 

So, what are your life lenses? What experiences have shaped your vision? What remains constant through your changing prescriptions? Who holds you fast?