Looking at Life Thru God's Glasses: Obstacles or Opportunities

LOOKING AT LIFE THRU GOD’S GLASSES: OBSTACLES OR OPPORTUNITIES – PART 1

I wear contacts which I have to change every two weeks. My medical mind has told me that it would be good to spend one day without contacts to give my eyes a rest before putting in new contacts.

During that day off, I wear glasses. One day, I didn’t have them nearby, and so I asked to borrow a friend’s glasses. His glasses are extremely thick and everything was blurry. Looking through his glasses really messed things up.

I thought about the importance of looking at life through God’s glasses to see people and events as God sees them. His glasses give 20/20 vision. This is the first of 5 life experiences to explore what God’s glasses reveal.

God sees opportunities, not obstacles. Too often in life, we see things from a negative point of view as an obstacle. God always sees it as an opportunity. The difference between an obstacle and an opportunity depends on your attitude, which determines what you see. Every opportunity has an obstacle, but every obstacle also has an opportunity! It depends on what you see.

The life of Joseph recorded in Genesis 37-50 could easily be seen as filled with obstacles. His brothers tried to kill him. The governor’s wife accused him of sexual misconduct. He was thrown in prison.

At every turn in Joseph’s life, you could see an obstacle, or you could see an opportunity. Joseph looked at his life through God’s glasses. When his brothers discovered who he was in Egypt, they were frightened that he would kill them. Instead, he wanted to be reunited with them.

Looking through God’s glasses caused Joseph to say, “What you intended for bad, God has intended for good in order to bring about this present result!” (Genesis 50:20) Human glasses see obstacles – God’s glasses see opportunities.

There is a beautiful story about how years ago, a young man asked a young girl to go with him on a picnic on a nearby lake. After rowing the boat to get to the other side of the lake, they started to spread the food. The girl commented that he had forgotten the ice cream. Could he go get it?

He rowed back across the lake and got the ice cream and brought it back to the young lady he was trying to impress. She then commented that there was no chocolate syrup and asked him to go get some. He rowed back across the lake, got the syrup, and returned to the picnic area, exhausted.

The man’s name was Clarence Evinrude. He decided there was a better way to cross the lake, so he invented the outboard motor. He was looking through glasses that saw beyond the obstacle to the opportunity. By the way, Clarence later married the girl he carried on the picnic!

Obstacles or opportunities? Sampson’s mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines who ruled over Israel at that time. (Judges 14:4) James said, “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way consider it an opportunity for great joy.” (James 1:2) Jeremiah exclaimed, “Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, is a loudmouth who missed his opportunity!” (Jeremiah 46:17)

What do you see – obstacles or opportunities?