What lens are you using?

What lens are you using?

August 11, 2016

Megann Graf

Pastor Jeff talked about using our “Jesus lens’” to look at the upcoming election.  What if that’s not enough?

What if this isn’t election advice?  What if it goes beyond?  As I sat on my front porch yesterday, sulking and being miserable, because things that afternoon had not gone my way, it hit me.  It hit me and humbled me.  I was looking at my life through the wrong lens, and I knew it.  No wonder I can’t see politicians in a positive light, if I’m having a hard time seeing my life in a positive light.  It’s easier to complain sometimes, to look at all the bad.  I want to see things through MY lens, you know, the one where everything goes my way and I am always right.  But, oh how distorted it is.  And, when I sit, looking through that lens on too long, things get blurry and confusing.  It’s not the right lens.  It never lasts long enough.   

I have to look through a different lens.  The only one that will not fail is His.  It’s the lens of God that allows me to see the beauty in the messes, the joy in the sorrows, and allows for gratitude in all things.  It is only through this lens, that I can feel peace and feel happiness because I can SEE God.  I can see Him in everything and everyone around me. 

So, here was my take away from Sunday’s message, and my porch revelation yesterday.  It was to switch my lens and look for the good.  Look for 3 good things about each of the candidates.  Look for 3 good things in my home.  Look for 3 good things in each of the children.  See them.  Acknowledge them.  Seeing the bad is easy.  It’s easy, because it’s in all of us.  It’s hard, because deep down we know that if the world saw us from the outside, and focused only on our worst things, it would be awful.  We are changing, through Christ, from the inside out.  And, our outsides won’t be perfect on this earth. 

What if Christians got this?  What if we lived this?  How would this country be better?  How would this campaign season be better? 

Think about those answers, and think about the lens you’re looking through.  Maybe you need a new one too.