From the moment we enter our lives on Earth, we begin accumulating experiences which determine the way we assimilate and understand future experiences. In short, our experiences provide us a lens through which we look at the world. The problem is that if our lenses are significantly impacted by negative and adverse events, it can cause us to pull away from others and to misinterpret their actions.
In reality, most people are simply trying to get through the day; they are just trying to survive. Most people do not wake up wondering what they can do to hurt us on a given day. We need to work on recalibrating the way we see the world and understand that the world doesn’t revolve around us and our experiences. As we pursue wholeness and heart healing, we are offered a chance to bit by bit remove the lies which we have been believing or which have been bombarding us; the lies which have been telling us that we are useless, worthless, unlovable, ignored, rejected, and all sorts of other less than desirable qualities.
The only way that we can really renew the way we see the world is by allowing our minds to be transformed as we apply God’s truth as our moral compass as well as our plumbline. Our plumbline is the standard by which we interact with the world. When we do this, bit by bit the lies fall away and bit by bit we become whole as we realize that in a lot of instances our sadness is triggered by us over-interpreting other people’s actions as being responses to us rather than their actions simply being their way of surviving and navigating this world.
Jesus warns us in Luke Chapter 19 that “the spirit of offense will come, however, woe to the one who brings it.” This truth reminds us how important it is for us to not risk getting offended by aligning ourselves with the spirit of offense when we try to interpret what is happening in the world around us. The best thing that we can do is to use Jesus as our lens and try to learn how to see the world through his eyes, always consulting the Holy Spirit for “what does this mean?” and “what must I do?”
