In my family my husband wears the perpetual silver lined pink glasses while I wear the darker tinted ones. We both continually joke about how each other sees the world through our glasses.
My husband and I have both grown up in a harsh reality of bitterness, disappointments, abuse and dysfunction. He chooses not to dwelling all the ‘yuck’ of life by trying to change his world by changing his outlook. He chooses to see Jesus as the ever loving God of peace, kindness and all things wonderful. This is somewhat commendable if it didn’t HAVE to find the rosy in EVERY situation.
I will use this illustration to summarize the difference between the pink and the dark glasses. When your child dies, your job is dissolved, the water main breaks and a tornado is forecasted for the next hour the fact is that these things are happening and they are going to hurt and they are real. Yes one could remain calmer and not freak and this could be viewed as a positive outlook and you may be able to smile big and quote positive things to cheer you through but there is not a pink pair of glasses around that will change the reality of what is happening. When you wake up tomorrow the problems are still there. It is not to say that the dark glasses person will freak when all this happens. It is to say that they will take it all for what it is worth, try to level out the processes as they are happening, look at all the possibilities available and work with the best common sense possible.
I view the pink glasses as looking at life not just in a positive light, begging to see the good in everything and finding the silver lining in every coffin but that they are fuzzy and somewhat blurry in their perception of reality. I think that the true concept behind pink glasses is that they are mainly worn by folks that are disillusioned with life and reality the way it is and they choose to bypass this reality and view it the way ‘they want’ – pink, rosy and brightly lit.
I on one hand have worn and cherished my dark tinted glasses because it has seemed to keep me from stepping into, what my husband chooses to see as a garden of flowers, but is really a pile of prickly weeds. It has kept me in a more balanced reality. It causes me to not see Jesus as a flowery, peaceful dude but as a righteous, holy God to be revered. It causes me to see my sin and fall on my face with a broken heart of humility and repent not just because I sinned but that I sinned against a God that has offered me life. My dark tinted glasses keep me from superimposing my desires on God and it blocks the glare of the world’s enticements. It shelters me from the dazzling shine of pretty sins.
The driver in a car that has its windows tinted dark does not have impaired vision but a cleared vision without the brilliant dazzling and blinding lights coming at him from all sides.
Behind my shades I see the clear light of a holy God. Whether I wear pink, green or dark glasses I desire to see life through the eyes of Jesus. I desire to see life in a way that glorifies him in me.
Yes, I can hear folks wondering where the happy median is. But Damale, where is the moderation? Why so black and white? So left and right? First, moderation is a common extrapolation of Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean not a biblical term. Second, Christ was quite adamant about the left and the right, the sheep and the goats, to be written in the Book of Life or to be blotted out, etc. Most of what Jesus taught was that you either are or are not. To play the religious game half way and expect full credit didn’t go over well with him.
It is a harsh cold world and I don’t mind wearing pink glasses on a rare occasion when I need to overlook something in order to show the love of God but I cannot and will not don them to overlook sin in my life or yours. I prefer to remember Jesus all tore up and bloodied on the cross for MY sins (not hanging all pretty-boy-like). I want to remember Jesus as one that was not comely in appearance. I want to recognize that he didn’t wear the ‘just bleached’ white robes and his feet were not soft. I am sure he didn’t walk around with a glowing halo around his just washed hair. I want to see that when I deny him it tears at the core of our relationship.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. ~ 1Corinthians 13:12
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2 comments:
Jesus didn't need to wear either pair of glasses. While we see through the glass darkly because of our sin I think he saw the reality of the kingdom. I think he saw in the folks he healed not just the body in need but also the potential they would ultimately realize in him.
...this more in answer to the poll than to your post...
Thanks Ben for reading the blog. I wish you had put 'other' on the poll. The poll obviously was not too terribly scientific, at best. I was not alluding that the 'seeing darkly' represented Jesus, just to clarify. In our frailty, we tend to use the glasses in order to cope with life. He didn't need to. Thanks for the comment.
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