What is your lens?

When I first started writing blogs I would get annoyed when people would respond and read something other than the message I was trying to get across. I thought I had missed the mark as a writer, but then my wise husband reminded me that everyone brings their own story into what they read. It’s not that you said it wrong, it’s that they read the words through the lens of their own experience and received something that I never intended.

That’s true not only with writing, but also the songs we listen to, the stories people tell, and the way we observe life.

Our electric lawn mower recently broke and yesterday I had to go pick it up in the next town over. The shop that fixes them also doubles as a vacuum store and is in a pretty rough part of town. As I was walking up to the door with Oz in the car carrier, a man that I presumed to be homeless was walking toward me. He quickly turned back toward the sweeper shop door, dropping a bunch of trash in the process, and mumbled that he needed to respect me and the baby as he graciously opened the door for me. In this moment I felt seen and cared for by this man. I also know that my experiences in life have led me to have a heart for those that society might look down upon. I hope he knows that his kind act blessed me yesterday.

There are a lot of people that are fearful of homeless people or drug addicts that roam the street. And I get that. I obviously exercise discernment and wisdom when going into seedier parts of towns, but I also refuse to be afraid because for a long time we lived in a seedy area. What I learned when we lived in that seedy area is that most people are just living their life like I am.

About 8 years ago we met a homeless man named Russ when he came into the church we were going to. He was obviously not in his right mind, but we invited him to Taco Bell for lunch. At the time I think we had 4 kids, so our crew, another friend, and Russ sat Bell and tried to have some semblance of conversation. Russ had a lot of demons in his life so there wasn’t a lot of clarity in his words, but both Brad and I continued to have softened hearts toward him for many years after that. When he came to church on Easter Sunday, I knew God was tapping my shoulder to invite him to lunch at our house after service. I can only imagine what my dad must have thought when he showed up and Russ was at our house. Was it a little weird and awkward? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Russ got to sit down at a table with a family and have Easter lunch that day.

I asked 87 year old Bob who owns the sweeper shop to help me get the mower out to my car because I didn’t have any big kids to help and only one free hand. He gladly obliged and we worked together to shove it into the back of our big van. As Bob looked down at Oz he immediately began to talk about how blessed I am. We chatted for many minutes and he must have used the word blessed at least 10 times. Bob was able to look at my big van and 7 children as a blessing because (I’m almost certain) he was looking at the world through a lens that included Jesus. Bob is old enough to remember when children were celebrated, not discarded.

I’ve spent the past 40 years piecing together my own lens. I’m so grateful that God has changed my perspective as I’ve recognized what I saw didn’t match up with the Kingdom of God.

The other night my friend Amy was showing me around her gardens. As we walked around to the different beds I noticed that almost all of her plants came from someone else. Over the summer she took a little from me and a little from others and made a beautiful, healthy, and useful garden out of it. It was all collected from different places.

That’s what we do with our experiences and ideas. They are collected, a little bit here and there, over a lifetime. It’s important that our lenses line up and reflect Jesus, but it also makes the body more interesting and fun that we don’t all see things the same. I was able to be blessed by the homeless man who wanted to serve because I didn’t feel afraid. Bob was blessed by a smiling baby because he has seen a lot of life and knows just how precious it is. Amy was blessed by friends who divide and share their plants because she knows these plants will make good food and medicine.

We are many parts, we are all one body.