At some point in my childhood/teenage years, I handed in my rose-coloured glasses and started wearing new glasses. Glasses that gradually made me view life in a different way.
How did this change come about?
Enter disappointment.
And once disappointment enters your life, you almost always start viewing life through it’s dusty and darkened lens.
I’m learning that as an adult, there is almost a never-ending struggle to hold onto your authenticity, your optimism (hope), and your faith. It’s as if there are missions set out to systematically break these qualities down. And half of our fight as adults is not to let the struggles of life cause our hearts to become hardened. I never knew that this was a thing—that your heart can become so guarded that you never really fully feel because every doorway that leads to deep connection is sealed off. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on how you view it), I can understand why those with the softest hearts are often disguised under a mask of harshness and hardness. I understand why those who have so much love choose to keep that love to themselves. I can understand why many people appear to be seemingly unambitious but actually hide the greatest imaginations and ideas deep in their hearts and minds. At some point in their lives, they looked at the debris of their circumstances and past and just did not have the strength to rebuild again. You can surely rebuild after one disaster. But what happens after the fourth disaster, or the seventh, or the tenth?
They started wearing those dusty glasses of disappointment, and now everything in life is marred by a mist of impending despondency—a harsh reminder of their past hurt.
However…quite miraculously, there are those people who have turned down the enemy’s offer of a life centered around disappointment. Now, how did this come about?
Enter Jesus.
Despite what they have been through in life, they choose to fight to maintain their authenticity, their hope, and their faith. Their smiles are bright, and their hearts are still full of hope. They have every right to shake their fists in the air and become victims, but they choose not to. Maybe it’s just me, but someone choosing to get back up again and rebuild even though you know you might fall again is pretty brave.
This is a personal piece for me. I understand the frustration of disappointment and failure. And it’s hard. I never want to negate the heaviness of a difficult experience in order to make a message more effective. True vulnerability brings about true freedom. But I know that there is a light that flickers within despair. Not even disappointment can hide it. Because we have Jesus, we always have hope. He is the hope of glory!
The operative word in all of this is “choice.”. You have a choice today.Are we going to accept the prescription glasses that the enemy is handing us, or are we going to accept the eternal vision of our Saviour Jesus Christ?
Lamentations 3:21-26
Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
His mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;therefore, I will hope in him!”The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.So it is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord.
