For me, my life lens has been developed by my upbringing by a single Mom growing up on the east side of Youngstown Ohio. My first church community was Jerusalem Baptist church, which was made up of people who had come to Youngstown from the southern states to make a new and better life in the north.
My life lens was later influenced as I worked in a steel mill, went to college part time for eight years in order to earn my bachelor’s degree, married Judy, who was of the Catholic faith, which of course affected my spiritual growth. Her death years later, after a long battle with cancer, caused my life lens to change radically. My many moves around the country as I worked for different insurance companies gave me more experiences. Then joining a Lutheran church and eventually going to a Lutheran seminary and being married to a Lutheran pastor, Shirley, continues to change my life lens.
I give my life experiences to encourage each of you to think about all of the events both large and small, and all of the people that have come and gone into your lives and reflect upon how all of these situations have gotten you to where you are today. We are who we are today because of what has happened to us in the past, and how we look at life through our life lenses has been formed by these experiences. How we look at things that occur on a daily basis, how we spend our time and money, and how we react to the events that confront us are determined by our life lens.
At this beginning of a new year, please be encouraged to either begin or continue to enhance taking part in the practices of prayer, Bible study, and reflection. These habits will give your life lens the ability to see things from a spiritual aspect versus a worldly one. This may help you to better deal with the many and varied issues of life! Peace, Vernon T.
Copyright © 2019 Vernon T. Jones, All Rights Reserved