A Redesigned Life By Tracy SteelExemplo

Day Four

Seeing Reality Clearer

Design principle to ponder: Contrast

Principle helps us: see ourselves, our God, and those around us clearer whenever life doesn’t go as planned.

I can remember the first time I put my glasses on. The images around me became clearer and crisper. Prior to wearing glasses, I believed I was seeing the world around me clearly, but I wasn’t. The contrast between what I could see without my glasses versus what I could see with them on was huge. 

In the same way, the focus of our heart and mind becomes blurred whenever we allow things like unrealistic expectations or pride to affect how we view God, our life, or other people. Our God longs to help us see him and all that happens in our lives clearly. Because of that, God allows contrast to happen within and around us as part of our sanctification and uses it to ultimately turn our focus back to him. The longer we follow, love, and obey God, the clearer we’ll be able to see. This is by design. 

Things within and around us should start to look different as we view them through the lens of God’s personhood and perspective. His ways are often different than our ways of doing things. Not only is there contrast within and around us, there’s also contrast within the personhood of God himself. We’d be wise to embrace all the complexities of our God, for doing so increases our awe, trust, and security in him. 

We should welcome contrast whenever we see its presence in our life. We may think we are perceiving things clearly. Thankfully, our gracious God notices when we’re unable to see our reality correctly. He has designed contrast into our lives by allowing things like unmet expectations and/or dissatisfaction with things that once fulfilled us, or by bringing people who are wired differently than we are into our lives. Though what it reveals may sting, this principle helps us to see ourselves, our God, and those around us in a much clearer, truer sense when life doesn’t go as planned. 

We also see contrast between who we were before knowing Christ and who we are as forgiven children of God. Regardless of how checkered our pasts are, 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us that we are new creations in Christ. The old us is gone. The new us, being sanctified into the likeness of Jesus Christ, is our present and future reality.

How has disappointment or unmet expectations in your life helped you understand yourself, those around you, or God’s character more clearly?