CRACKED LENSES
Have you ever looked through a pair of glasses with cracked lenses? The world appears bent out of shape with obscured clarity and uncertain circumstances — leaving you unsure if you can even trust the next step you’re going to take. Our belief systems have the same ability to crack the lenses through which we see the world causing us to make accusations, statements, and decisions based on unstable theories. Have you ever considered how the way you view God as a Father affects every aspect of your life? My friend Jonathan Helser says, “The God that we see is the son and daughter that we will be.” If you believe God is an angry dictator, you’ll behave differently than if you believe that He is a good and generous Father. However, often we can know something to be true in our head, but it doesn’t reflect in our heart. If we knew God was a good Father cheering his sons and daughters on in every dream and desire they had, think about how many more inventions, songs, and organizations would exist? Would fear and insecurity rage war as loud as it has in the hearts of His children? What I am getting at is often it’s how we view God that affects who we become. The truth is we must confront our belief systems if we want to live in the fullness of who God has created us to be — to live in the fullness of our identity. Often uncertainty and distrust flood our being because our heart and mind are operating out of separate belief systems.
I recently sat down for a conversation with Jonathan Helser, a husband, father of two, and co-founder of the 18-Inch Journey. Jonathan and his wife Melissa lead a discipleship school in North Carolina. In our conversation Jonathan shared the story of writing his first song as a young man. He said, “If I didn’t have a dad in the room that believed in me and cheered me on, I think that fear would have clogged the well.” Sometimes we can get stuck in the statistics of fatherlessness and focus on the crime rates, behavioral issues, and school dropouts and forget that there are children who don’t have parents championing them to believe that they have what it takes to master the skills aligned with their aspirations and dreams — these children are left to conquer their own insecurities and overcome their fear of failure all by themselves.
HOW YOUR VIEW OF GOD AFFECTS EVERYTHING
Are there areas in your life that you have viewed God through a cracked lens? Maybe it was an experience you walked away hurt from or a prayer you never saw answered. I want to encourage you to bring these moments to the Lord and ask Him what His thoughts about these situations are. What does He have to say about you, the person that hurt you, or the circumstance that crushed you.
If you are having trouble moving past the cracked lens that has blurred your view of God I encourage you to seek out scripture, read about Him, ask others to share their testimonies of how He has shown up in their life. He is a good Father, who desires to be close to His sons and daughters.
