Looking Through Different Lenses
If you are a person who needs corrective lenses for your eyes, then you’ve been through the uncomfortable process of having the prescription you wear updated. And what I mean is not so much the eye exam but the actual process of wearing the new prescription while you wait for your eyes (and brain) to adjust. Depending on how much your prescription has changed, this can be a headache inducing and nausea producing few days. But, once your eyes and brain get with the new way of seeing, your vision improves. Stuff you didn’t even realize you were missing you can now notice. Details that were fuzzy or blurred are now crisp and clean. Those few days though are tough. You are at a point where continuing to look through the old lenses will not help you see better but looking through the new ones is also at least somewhat unhelpful.
James calls the followers of Jesus to have a different way of looking at the world. And it is at first nausea producing and uncomfortable but, if we commit to this new way of seeing the world, details emerge in high-definition and the things we were missing before are now obvious to us. James says to us that planning is not evil but pretentious planning is foolish given God’s sovereignty (James 4:13-17). He also reminds us that wealth is not bad but hoarding wealth is foolish given a soon coming accounting with God (James 5:1-6). Both of these are very different lenses from the culture around us. A culture obsessed with planning and strategy. A culture living with more than any other, ever and still going broke trying to amass stuff for ourselves. Its hard not to let the culture blur the details and blind us to the mattering things. It is hard to live a life surrendered to God when selfishness grasps at every moment of our time and wealth and is never satisfied. But, we can’t go back to wearing the old lenses. They won’t help us see better. They only delay the pain that clear vision calls us to attend to now. So, be brave strap on the new lenses and don’t let the uncomfortableness of re-calibration stop short the transformation that God wants to do in you. On the most practical level, this means surrendering your time and treasure to God. It means not seeing your life or your wealth as your own but His. But, to start down this path is to invite discord with the world around you. Living for eternity in a culture obsessed with NOW is going to garner some sideways glances, some head shaking, maybe even out-loud musings on how foolish you are being. It is okay though, they simply cannot see what you see and know. Their eyes are still blind. Rather than ridicule their blindness, let’s pray for God to open blind eyes.
For several weeks now I’ve joked that songs that go along with these messages in James are in short supply. In an irony not lost on me, God gave me two songs (lyrics only so no worries) which have been much on my heart and mind the last couple weeks. These are old(er) hymns but the lyrical content is the stuff of clear-eyed focus on the Kingdom coming. Enjoy!
Living for Jesus a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior,
I give myself to Thee,
For Thou, in Thy atonement,
Didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master,
My heart shall be Thy throne,
My life I give, henceforth to live,
O Christ, for Thee alone.
Living for Jesus who died in my place,
Bearing on Calv’ry my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.
Living for Jesus wherever I am,
Doing each duty in His holy name;
Willing to suffer affliction and loss,
Deeming each trial a part of my cross.
Living for Jesus through earth’s little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.
Living for Jesus Text by Thomas O. Chisholm
Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee,
swift and beautiful for thee.
Take my voice and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from thee,
filled with messages from thee.
Take my silver and my gold;
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
every power as thou shalt choose,
every power as thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne,
it shall be thy royal throne.
Take my love; my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee,
ever, only, all for thee.
Take My Life and Let it Be, Text by Frances Ridley Havergal