Rose-Colored Glasses in a Shifting World

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It was over in the corner. Pink paint lined the edges and poked out enough to remind me it was there, rolled up with dust collecting in the tiny folds at the creases of the poster board paper. It was a blueprint of my visions for 2021. I made it earlier in the year, probably around March, to tape on my wall, and it is now April – of 2022.

The dirty laundry surrounding the paper piled high, socks jumping out and T-shirts clinging to the edge. The board was small, tucked in the corner and quickly forgotten. Maybe that is why I put it there – subconsciously, a corner is where I had stored the visions themselves.

Fear has its way of grabbing the wheel when we are driving through the quicksand of change. While the goals were taking their place in the backseat, I only fought for control of the wheel. Doubt came around the corner, and insecurity made me crash – I was a driver not even winning her own race.

For most of my life, I have looked through rose-colored glasses. They are frequently used and heavily invested in. Most days are bright, sunny, and celebrated. Intentions are good, people are good, and motives are pure. It is a personal preference of blissful, self-preserved innocence to live peacefully in contrast to the harsh nightmares of the world.

The rose glasses are a means of coping when I do not feel like dealing. Sometimes I don’t like the route the map gives me – or the route others have to take.

I would go to reach for my glasses again, but I had already lost them. Fantasies I dreamed, plans I constructed, and expectations I build can quickly crumble, taking me longer to get there with detours. Perfectly placed ideas and carefully crafted plans turn into pieces smaller than I intended. The glasses are becoming a little less rose and a lot more real. It’s hard, but I am learning to be ok with it.

I look at the scenery around me, around the world, and I see hearts breaking, people hurting, and cities grasping for a hope that seems absent and destroyed. Every situation is not always happy or cheery, and every season is not easy to celebrate.

Just because we choose to see reality does not mean we cannot decide to find an opportunity.

Goals can be scary when our vision is blurred, and actuality will not always align with our over-achieving expectations. However, we can brave the giants we face with the strength and confidence of child-like faith.

I remember learning in Sunday school of a mighty giant standing against an unexpected opponent. The squinty eyes of the small boy proved that he didn’t have much and had experienced little besides keeping to his family’s sheep. Yet, when I look at the pictures of those posters hanging on the walls of my Sunday school room, I know the outcome of that story.

As David tended to his father’s sheep for days in the field, I doubt he thought he would find himself in the field that would propel his pathway to success as king. As David lived to work to provide for his family, I doubt he thought he would be defending the people of Israel and later providing for the nation. As David went through all his life, I doubt he thought this moment would happen – to transition from standing face to face with a giant to later standing over that giant’s body.

There are no rose-colored glasses or an easy way out in David’s story.

David was a chosen leader. God knew David’s purpose, and He carried that plan out from beginning to end. Even when circumstances seemed impossible, God prepared David to carry out what he needed to – the unlikely.

As God calls me where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do, I don’t want to look for the easy way out, and I don’t want to reach for my glasses to escape reality. I want to fight with a new weapon.

• I fight the fear of change by believing routines will not bring me comfort when I live in the discomfort of not following the Lord.

• I fight the fear of navigating past trauma by trusting God’s truth because I know He is fighting for me – His discernment will never fail me.

• I fight the struggle for independence with knowledge that I am learning and continuing to grow– I need older influence in my life for guidance.

Our cries for relief remind us that this world can be harsh, but every fear, doubt, and insecurity fades compared to the power of Jesus Christ. His love melts heartbreak; His mercy covers the need for revenge; His grace outlasts our bitterness.

Our rose-colored tint may slightly fade, but the weapon we fight with never will. I can trust God when intentions aren’t good, situations are harmful, and the world gets scary.

Christ’s strength is enough. His love is sufficient.

Quiet confidence and peaceful freedom come with knowing our identity is in Christ and then boldly walking forward even when the world grabs everything.

The vision board is still in the corner, but I think it’s an encouraging reminder that trust is best when we believe the Maker who gives us His best. Trust in glasses is like trust in people – easily shared and easily lost – but trust in God is trusting the Maker of all things to lead us where He needs us. His plan and purpose go beyond what a pair of tinted, jaded shades can do.

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