Life through The Lens: Letting Go and Finding Grace in Rare Places
I love the morning sunlight. It is crisp and warm. It soothes the onset of a new day. It beckons me out of the bed and into what I need to do.
The light welcomes me.
Especially in the Fall where the golds and greens abound; colors illuminating against the blue ceiling.
There are no clouds today.
It was perfect to sit amidst the wonder listening to the birds chirp and the church bells chime. Wonderful.
To see the puppies bounce and sniff and wait… they aren’t going to the—-
NO!!!!
Houdini, the name I’ve nicknamed my eldest dog as she can get out of anything. Lock up? Forget it. She’ll figure out a way and even use her sister’s muscle power for her advantage then leave sister behind.
Ask me how I know.
A brief scolding and then relief when they listened to my command, I ventured back into the wonder.
When, stop.
Three little new springs have sprung in the space where the leaves damaged the grass. New life in the ruins?
I’ve learned a bit about trees reseeding themselves living in the jungles of my current abode. Never have I witnessed tree growth as I do here. It’s quite amazing.
I looked around to see what the new tree might be. Not too far stands a crate myrtle proud. I looked down at the sprigs. Yup. Three sprigs and all. It’s a baby crate. I love these trees.
Trying to practice a heart of gratitude, this was a good step in the right direction.
But the three little sprigs surged a new idea. Capture it.
I debated the time, the energy the…
Well, why not?
Off to get my camera.
Any photographer will tell you that while the body of what captures the photos is important, it is the glass that one sees through that is critical. If you have low grade glass, then your photo won’t have all the bells and whistles and what makes it all it can be.
The Lord brought such a fine grade glass into my life recently and with a challenge:
to internally see myself through this glass and not through my eyes.
Not my past.
Not my hangups, hiccups or harrowing-did-I-really-say-or-do that??
Nope.
But through the glass of… grace?
Not through what I’ve left undone? What I should have or should not have completed? Not through all my lacks and false lusters?
Simply through a high grade glass that He sees you and me through. Grace.
As many a woman will tell you, self criticism and battles with failure are at the top of her daily greatest hits (but we all hate) chart. I am such that gal.
Producing something perfect sends me to the moon. Who doesn’t enjoy this? But when it isn’t just right, I adjust, I tweak, I do anything but leave it the heck alone.
I need to leave myself the heck alone.
I saw a video recently that has a lot of impact as it reveals to women that they are their own biggest critic when everyone else sees them as a beautiful person. Check it out.
“We see ourselves as harsh and unbecoming, when in reality that’s not how the world sees us,” And may I add…
That’s not how God sees us.
So the challenge to see myself differently came with other lists.
To forgive myself for all the small things and the big things.
To let go of the things that I condemn myself over.
And…
To
Move
Forward.
I’ve started posting index cards with Scripture around my house. Places that my eyes bounce upon when I open the fridge, do the dishes, wake up in the morning.
Scripture that breathes new life in the desert places in my soul.
Words of truth that I can trust.
Words that cheer me forward instead of remind me of the past….
…that closet of memories that I try to slam shut and lock, but like my Houdini of a dog, they find their own way out and LOUD into my thoughts.
Speaking of which, did I tell you I’m a hoarder?
I actually like to call it: “being resourceful”. “Being prepared.”
Sure. The boxes piled high and tipping over will tell you the same thing. (:
I think it’s time to go to Hoarders Anonymous and proclaim: “Hi, I am a hoarder.”
And what is external likely falls across the board internally.
I am also a hoarder of my past.
It entangles me all of the time like the countless boxes I tend to keep so that when I have to, I’m ready to move. But somehow, I’m not moving anywhere soon.
Ironic that I hoard boxes to pack things in, to physically move but internally, I need to let go of what’s inside of these boxes to figuratively move forward. Isn’t irony sometimes greatness?
So, will the boxes really get gone soon? Literally? My vote is no on that.
However, internally…
What must happen now is the letting go, the forgiveness and the diligence to see myself how God sees me…. through His glass. Not mine.
So watch this.
When my eyes see the Scripture cards, it breeds new thoughts. New life.
When my mind’s eye looks around the room of me, it breeds old thoughts. Death. Lies. Hurt.
So then I capture these thoughts of self condemnation and criticism. I hold them up to the glass of grace. I realize the lies. For in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation.
What about the I’m no good at, I’m not… etc., etc., etc., You can pretty much bank that these are lies too.
Which draws my conclusion.
My thoughts can lie. But the truth does not.
My eyes see one thing. God’s glass of grace sees another.
My mind and heart will lie to me. God does not.
So, if we are to retreat from the scolding and return into the wonder, let us fill our lives with the warmth of the truth.
The hope that beckons us out of bed in the mornings.
The light that welcomes us.
And let us move forward, fixing our eyes upon the thing things that propel us onward, not ensnaring us to hoard into our past thinking.
Let us be mindful to see through the glass of grace.
And let go. Be free.
Let us see through the high grade glass, steady, and SNAP.
Capturing the new life before us; the living admits the dessert.
Little sprigs of a beautiful wonder that He created. Wonderfully divine. You. Me. Us.
And let us live each moment in thankfulness, that which spurs on the new and reveals the old.
For it is only through this glass that we can truly see that which we already behold.
Put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature, Colossians 3:5.
You used to walk in these ways in the life you once lived, Col. 3:7.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things, Col. 3:8.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves, Col. 3:12.
With grace… because…
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus... ...because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death, Romans 8:1-2.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…
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