The View from a New Pair of Specs

Nothing messes with the mind and emotions of a shopper more than rearranging the items for sale in a grocery store. No matter what the reasoning behind the reorganization, customers are convinced that the ultimate plan is to pull more money out of their pockets by making them hunt and search for the items they need, perhaps discovering new items to buy in the process. They resent the extra time and effort they have to put into filling their carts, and by the time they reach the checkout lane their rage has reached the boiling point and is ready to spill over onto the first store employee they see, usually the hapless cashier standing behind the register.

I listened to my share of customer complaints yesterday after clocking in for my shift. At first I was sympathetic to the customers' frustration, understanding that their time is valuable and they don't appreciate it being wasted for a purpose that doesn't seem to benefit them in any way. But as the day wore on and customer after customer spilled their vitriol over me, I went from sympathetic to apathetic to wishing I'd doubled up on my blood pressure medicine before coming in that day. I simply pasted a smile on my face, bit my tongue and reminded myself that as paying customers they had a right to voice their opinions and I was being paid to patiently stand there and listen.

One customer talked himself into a better frame of mind all by himself! At first he was angry, and I listened to his criticism in silence, nodding occasionally, so he couldn't accuse me of completely ignoring him. Once he had spilled his guts, he said, “But I know you had nothing to do with the decision to move things around.”

I nodded in agreement.

“And you probably have to shop here and be frustrated like the rest of us.”

“Very true,” I answered.

“And eventually we'll all learn where things are again.”

“Now you're talking...,” I said in agreement.

“And in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter very much, does it?”

“Buddy, now you're singing my song!” I told him.

That was the point in a nutshell, as another customer told a fellow shopper he met in the aisle. He listened to her voice her complaints to anyone who was near as long as he could take it. Then he turned to her, a complete stranger, and said, “Listen, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease yesterday, and today you're upset because you can't find where they put the spaghetti? I don't even want to hear it.” He noted her subdued silence as he turned and went on his way.

It's a matter of perspective, for sure. And sometimes we simply need to similarly confront our pessimism head on and remind ourselves of what is truly important in life. While an extended shopping venture is a frustrating inconvenience, it is not the end of the world. We would realize that if we for a moment we shelved our complaints and focused our eyes on all that we have to be thankful for. For starters we could be grateful that we have the ability to come to the store and shop, money in our pockets with which to buy food, and such an abundance of goods that finding one particular item in their midst becomes a game instead of a chore. When we change the way we look at things, suddenly the overstocked shelves that seemed to be a curse we now view as overflowing with blessings from which we get to choose.

Usually the things we complain about aren't the real issue; rather they reveal the existence of a deeper problem on the inside. We're not really looking for items on grocery shelves per se. Instead, we're searching for the joy in our hearts that we lost somewhere along life's way. Everything that comes out of our mouths, regardless of where we are, just indicates its absence.

Each day following the recent remodel, the manager at our store assigned one of the cashiers to roam the aisles with no other job than to help the customers find the items they needed. Several times that was my assignment, and I walked the aisles sporting a black sash with the word “INFORMATION” in bold white letters across the front and a map of the store in my hand. My task was to find shoppers who looked lost, and together we would locate what they were looking for.

If you're searching for joy, I can help you with that, as well. The trick to finding it lies in wearing a special pair of spectacles. Put on your gratitude glasses and see not just your shopping trip but your life in a whole new light.

“So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

(Romans 12:1-2 MSG)

A Clear VIEW

It started with the fine print on menus in dimly lit restaurants. My husband found that he simply couldn't read them anymore. I laughed at him as with increasing frequency I was forced to read his dining options aloud to him. Increasingly frequent headaches from staring too intently at computer screens all day and a decreasing ability to read small print of any kind finally forced him to accept the inevitable, and he came home one day with the glasses that were eventually to become a permanent fixture on his face.

I realize now that I shouldn't have laughed, because eventually the same thing happened to me. I could feel the strain in my eyes as they tried to bring the printed pages before me into focus. Soon, I too, became the proud owner of a new set of spectacles. I've noticed lately a need to have them ever close at hand, while just mere months ago they would sit unused for days at a time. My use of them grows as my eyesight fails, a result of the aging process. My glasses are quickly becoming an indispensable tool I take with me as I travel through my days.

I put them on as I sat down to read this morning and realized that once again they were desperately in need of cleaning. The task itself triggered the same memory it always does, of my father cleaning my glasses for me when I was a little girl. My entry into the family photo album was marked by my vision problems. Pictures of a decidedly cross-eyed toddler were followed quickly by those of the same child wearing a miniature pair of specs. I remember those eyeglass frames to this day. In fact, if truth be told, I probably still have them, buried in a box somewhere in the basement. Those black cat-eye frames with silver specks were nightly tucked away in a blue leather case with a panda bear sticker on the front.

I hated those glasses. I wanted my eyes to have free exposure to the world around me and disliked the thought of having to hide them behind those vision aids. I ignored them as best I could, and of course it never entered my mind to clean them occasionally. So my father took on that job. I remember how he'd sigh as he once again plucked them off my face, wiped them clean and set them once again upon my nose. He, better than I, understood the necessity of keeping a clear view of things.

Now that glasses are once more a part of my life I once again struggle with remembering to clean them regularly. It's not until the smudges on them loom larger than the words I'm trying to read that it occurs to me that they might need some attention. My husband doesn't have that problem. He cleans his glasses as part of his morning routine each day, recognizing the need to see clearly if he's to accomplish all he has to do each day.

Many of us put as little effort into improving our spiritual vision as I do into enhancing my physical eyesight. We don't make a habit of cleaning our spiritual eyeglasses at the start of the day. Lack of time or concern are usually the reasons we fail to do so, not realizing that our neglect of the necessary affects our view of the situations around us all day long. Soon the fingerprints of man and the dark smudges of difficulties we face accumulate until they mar our view of God and what He wants to accomplish in our lives. Everything we see is tainted with the grime of the world, instead of viewed through the clear possibilities we possess in Christ. We need to start each day with the cleansing power of His mercy and forgiveness, and then let our eyes light on the promises and power in His Word, to fill our minds and hearts with food for the day ahead.

In much the same way as I resented my glasses as I child, sometimes we balk at the restrictions God's view of things seems to put on our lives, longing for the freedom to live as we wish. But His Word has a corrective action that works behind the scenes, often unnoticed, until with increasing frequency our wants and desires come in line with His. What was once an annoyance we now hardly notice. As we age spiritually we realize in increasing measure the failure of our own abilities and our increased dependence on Him, as it becomes ever more apparent that we can't see on our own at all anymore, except in Him.

No matter how old I get, I'll always need my Father to clean my spiritual spectacles. But now I know the importance of making that process a regular part of my day. I know that viewing the world around me through God's perspective is the only way I can complete the work He has for me to do and fulfill His purpose and plan for my life. I've found out that the earlier in the day I put my spiritual glasses on, the better off I'll be. The details of what God has on the menu of life for me might suddenly come into focus and become a real feast for the eyes. I'll want to be able to read all about it for myself.

"The eye is the lamp of the body.
 If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light."
(Matthew 6:22 NIV)