Through what Lens

So yesterday I wore my glasses instead of my contacts like I normally do. As I was walking around campus I noticed a few things.

Maybe it's because I don't wear  my glasses often, but I was constantly aware of the rim around my eyes. It was always there; as if it was a magic barrier. The instant my eyes looked beyond the rim the world became fuzzy. Honestly it was a mess.

Yet once I allowed my eyes to cross back through the barrier and to stare through the lens designed for them the world made sense again. What had been blobs of color were now people, flowers, cars and all the other magnificent sights this world gives us daily. Literally my outlook on life changed from a slight shift of my eyes!
So what?

As I made this observance almost instantly I had two lessons come into mind.

1. There is a lot in life we don't know. Sure, as we grow up we are taught what is right and what is important, but then life comes and shoves us out into an unknown world. It doesn't take much, but suddenly we are beyond the rim. We have passed into a strange new world that doesn't made any sense. Some people will end up wandering this new realm lost for the rest of their lives. Others will notice the rim is still there and drift back towards it. Allowing ourselves to once again go past the rim and view the new world through the lens of what we previously knew allows the new, confusing world to make sense again. 

Which I guess brings me to my second realization.

2. What lens am I using to view my life? There are so many different "pairs of glasses" we could put on, each altering what we see. Am I viewing my life through the glasses I have imagined my peers use to view me? Am I looking through shades of depression? Or am I using the glasses of God?   How we look at life is going to make a difference in what life will bring. 

I haven't quite figured it out. There are still many days I try on multiple types of glasses and my view on life is like a roller coaster. But I have found one thing for sure:

There are glasses out there that let me see the world with joy. It isn't possible to wear them all day every day, but that doesn't stop us from trying them on. 

So whatever they may be, bright yellow frames, hipster, stylin' black, 

We need to choose to look through the lens of Joy.