Time for New Lenses

You are created by a God who calls Himself…

Mighty, Love, Just, Righteous, Creative, Powerful, Gentle, Humble, Faithful, Honest, Trustworthy, Magnificent, Glorious, Rescuer, Strong, Shepherd, Healer, Worthy, Above all other gods, Patient, and Wise. 

The list goes on and remains limited only by our meager language. The point is, if God is the creator; whose existence is beyond description and absolutely extraordinary, and we are created in His very image, then logically we too bear His majestic and incredible image. 

Nothing about us is ordinary.

We, by created design and definition, are divine. What happened is that we lost our way on the journey. From the fall sin deceived us, as a collective creation, from living in our beloved and extraordinary status. We chose to take stock in a small falsity that we could somehow become greater or wiser than our designer and Father.

This descent made us ordinary, thus blurring our vision of what is right and true. Our personal awareness, brought on by our new demoted status, of inward, pride-seeking selfishness, has caused us to buy into a lie that we are less than.  Thus leading us to lose our purpose along the bumpy dusty road of life because we’ve chosen to walk further from our creator’s intentions. 

We alone are at fault in the belief that we are merely ordinary. The truth is that this lie concerning our ordinariness is just that; a lie.  We were never ordinary to begin with, our sin introduced ordinary, and now we grieve the loss by feeling this internal need and often drive to be extraordinary again. 

Fortunately, our extraordinariness is not lost forever. 

But, we need new lenses in order to see the truth before us. 

I’ve never had perfect 20/20 vision. I survived college and the past few years only needing reading glasses of a low prescription, until my last visit. I knew I needed a new prescription because the pages were blurry when I read, I squinted while watching tv, and when I drove at night all I could see were bright blurry lights. I had met my fate. But when I finally got my new lenses and put them on, I suddenly felt motion sickness and had to sit. As I looked around the room, it moved. Images bubbled around like a lava lamp. Something wasn’t right. Back at the clinic, the staff checked the prescription realizing they had switched the scaling by accident making my vision further impaired. Thankfully they found the mistake, and I am happy to say I am no longer a road hazard at night.

All that being said, our vision is important. Seeing wrongly is truly like being sick, being unable to function as we were intended to function, and not being able to see the reality of what is around us. When we can see through the right lenses, what was once muddled and skewed becomes clear. Clarity dispenses us toward understanding and right perspective.

The lens I want you to look through is that of God’s redemptive plan. Though sin has blurred our intended vision, Christ joined us on earth to make it all new again, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Revelation 21:5b NASB

God is making us into new creatures once more. (2 Corinthians 5:17) It is no wonder Jesus often healed the blind and talked about people having eyes to see, but no vision to see the truth while speaking of the opening of our spiritual eyes so we could see Him for who He truly is. For when we can see Him, we can see the reflection of who we were truly meant to be and have the hope that we will be that image yet again. 

Reconnecting with our extraordinary creator and allowing Him to restore us to our rightful status allows for everything we do, touch, say, live, work at, strive for, serve and breath to be the essence of extraordinary.

As I journey on this path of discovering the beauty of our ordinariness, the first stepping stone landed me here—To fully embrace and redefine the word ordinary into a right and Biblical perspective. For this to happen, we need eyes to see; eyes to see the reality of who God sees when we looks at us. 

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Created in the image of God. Breathed into being by the Spirit of God Himself. Loved so dearly He sacrificed for our return to Him. Being made anew. One day to be in His presence again. A friend. A beloved child. Extraordinary in every way. 

A prayer…

Lord, may our foundational understanding of our extraordinariness be reevaluated. Let us not pursue to do great things, or go to amazing places in order to be great for you, but rather, let us pursue you, the God of extraordinary. Help us to give you space to indwell us while transforming our lives, making us the fully restored and extraordinary persons you’ve created us to be. Animate our souls by releasing us from our sins so that we can see and live our true identity by exuding extraordinary in the ordinariness of our days. Clear our vision and open our spiritual eyes to the full knowledge of how amazing life can be when we are in relationship with you, our extraordinary Maker.

Below is a link to a video by Simon Sinek discussing “On Millennials in the Workplace.” It’s insightful for all of us as we consider why we long to be and feel extraordinary. There are some generalizations, but I think it can speak something to us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU