X-ray Vision? Well, Maybe not...

If you are as old as I am, somewhere between "older than dirt" and "just sprouted," you might remember those ads in the back of comic books that told us all about the AMAZING things we could buy. For $2, you could buy a family of "sea monkeys." For just a little bit more, you could buy X-ray glasses and have X-ray Vision! You could see through things and amaze your friends! Of course, none of those products were "for real" and many children learned their first lesson in life about "if it's too good to be true," but...just for a moment...the idea of owning the X-ray glasses was very exciting!

Now that I'm "grown up," I look back on the idea of X-ray glasses. When I think about it, they wouldn't be very practical unless you were a doctor. I mean, why would anyone want to see the inside of someone unless they were a doctor?

What I really need, though, is a pair of "God Glasses." Something that would help me to see things the way He sees them.

Do you ever get so busy in life that you just keep going and barely slow down to look around you? You have a checklist of things that you have to get done; a project at work, kids to baseball practice, laundry to be done, groceries to be bought, and on and on. Anything that breaks your stride feels like a distraction and can cause frustration. Have you ever been in a line in the grocery store and every line but the one you're in seems to be moving? Or what about when you are stuck in a traffic jam? You know you have to be someplace at a specific time and when it looks like you're going to be late, it can be stressful.

Let me ask you a question. When you are in any of those situations, do you ever look at anyone else around you? I mean really look at them? Probably not. When we are so focused on whatever our "plan" is at the moment, we really aren't aware of others around us.

This is where I need "God Glasses." If I stopped long enough from focusing on my "to do" list and saw things from His perspective, I might see things differently.

There might be a young mother, with a baby in the front of her cart, at the front of my checkout line who is carefully watching the total as her items are checked out because she knows she only has a specific, small amount of money to pay for her groceries. At that moment, when she sees the total and has to ask that some of the items be put back, she must decide which of the items that she really needs, will have to be left behind. She is ashamed that she went "over" and is causing the line to back up. She is dealing with a lot of emotions at the time.  If I was looking at the situation through "God Glasses," I could do something to help. Perhaps, if I'm next in line, I could quietly ask the cashier to add those items to what I was paying for, and have them bagged for the young mother.

What if I am in the traffic jam and no cars seem to be moving? What if it might be caused by an accident up ahead? If I was using my "God Glasses," I could look around at the people also stuck in traffic. I could pray for each of us to relax and be filled with peace as we wait, and I could pray for the people that might be involved in the accident up ahead.

The thing is, people all around us are going through many hard things, heartbreaking things. But we can't see it because everyone "puts on a good face" when we are out and about. If we could see people as God sees them, we would be sensitive to someone who might need a hug or an encouraging word. We might be able to help someone who might need a little extra financial help, like a bag of groceries. We could reach out to that person who God puts on our heart to ask them if they are ok and then stay with them long enough to know that their "I'm fine" really means, "ask me, again, please. I'm really not."

I really don't need "X-Ray Glasses," what I really need are "God Glasses."

Brandon Heath sings a song that is all about "God Glasses." It's called "Give Me Your Eyes." If you'd like to hear it, I've included a link to his YouTube version, here. It helps me to see things differently, to really try to be sensitive to what others are going through.

I have a long way to go, but I really need your "glasses," God, along the way.

Give me eyes to see and ears to hear.

Wearing Rose-Colored Glasses

Have you ever heard someone say, "Oh, she just sees the world through rose-colored glasses"? The meaning behind it is that the person only sees things in a positive light, looking right past the bad to the good.

When you think about it, is it really such a bad thing?

Part of the message at church today was about looking for the good in life. Pastor Craig Groeschel talked about the difference between vultures and hummingbirds. Vultures, he said, fly around looking for dead things. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, fly around looking for sweet things. He mentioned that if you are always looking for bad, you will find it. And if you are always looking for good, you will find that, too.

There is a lot of bad in our world. Always has been. That's practically all you see on the news, isn't it? Occasionally you'll see a "human interest" piece, but pretty much they should call it the "Bad News" instead of just "The News."

The thing is, there's a lot of good in our world, too. Always has been. Yes, there are the stories of good that make it on the news, that get passed around on the internet, but there are so many more little stories happening in our world every day. A mom with her hands full, shopping with very small children, drops something and someone nearby reaches to pick it up for her. Someone lets the person in when they are trying to merge into traffic. Someone "pays it forward" in a fast food line. Good is everywhere, if you know where and how to look for it.

The problem is we're just used to looking for the bad, finding fault, looking for mistakes. What if we made a decision, today, to change what we're looking for? What if we tried to "look for the good" in life...in others? What if we put on our "rose-colored glasses?"

I think I need to go shopping for a new pair of glasses! What about you?

Theology, Me-ology, or He-ology...What's Your '-ology?'

A lot of people think that being a Christian is all about going to church. Don't get me wrong, it's good to gather together to worship and grow with other people in learning more about God and His plan for us. But it shouldn't end there. Being a Christian, though, is much more than going to church, it's what you do with the rest of the week and how you live your life that really tells the story of what you believe in.

We should ask ourselves why we are going to church. If it is only to learn about God, sing a good worship song or meet up with our church-going friends, then perhaps what we have is more Theology than faith. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Theology as "the study of religious faith, practice, and experience: the study of God and God's relation to the world."

Or what if we go to church, hear a good message but then don't apply it to our lives and grow? What if we just go about our daily life focusing on the things that fill up our days or on the things that we want to fill up our days? I guess you could say that instead of "Theology" it would be more like "Me-ology."

Maybe it would be better, instead, to hear the message, pray about it, and ask how it could help us to grow and help us to know how to make a difference in ours and in other people's lives. Maybe it would be even better if we focused more on the One who first loved us and less about the things we think we need. After all in Matthew 6:33, it tells us that in "seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things (that we really need) will be added unto us. I believe we could call this "He-ology."

You see, if our focus is where it should be, being a Christian is less about going to church to hear a message and more about "being the church and living the message."

Something to think about, isn't it? What's your "-ology?