Faith-colored glasses

"you will see greater things"

John 1:50

What's your favorite color?  My family ~ well, my mom and my sisters and I ~ has always been partial to purples.  Somewhere along the line, I guess we just realized that we look good or feel good in that color, so it's always a safe bet when we're buying something for one another. 

After my visit to Kauai several years ago, I added a new "favorite color".  It's a color I call "Kauai".  It's mostly in my mind ~ the blue of the ocean combined with the green of the island they called "the Garden Isle."  Course, since the color mostly exists in my mind, it's a little hard to find in real life. 

Except on Kauai.

I read a quote the other day that got me to thinking about something a friend of mine once said.  She wondered out loud if maybe all colors were in our minds.  In other words, when I say blue to you, in my mind I could be thinking of any number of shades of the color blue.  We'd have to get into specifics to both be envisioning the same color. 

But, my friend argues, even if I said navy blue, would we still be picturing the same shade?  Or, does my eye see the same thing your eye sees?

I mean, you and I would both agree (unless you're color blind) that this shade of blue is darker than this shade of blue, but maybe the darker shade of blue is darker to me than it is to you. 

You with me?

The quote that I read that made me think of this whole concept was in a book on Lewis and Clark Expedition.  I just never get tired of reading about Lewis and Clark.  All they saw and all they accomplished, while maintaining (relatively) good relations with the many Native American tribes they encountered is just amazing to me.

The quote was by Meriwether Lewis, and it was something he had written in his journal during the expedition.  He said, "the state of mind in which we we are generally gives the colouring to events."  I think that is so true.  It's really a very poetic way of explaining why some people see the glass as half-full, and some see it as half-empty.  

Optimist, pessimist, realist*.... which one are you?  

* I don't believe in realists.  

I think they're just pessimists who won't admit it

You and I can see the same color, differently.  And we can see the same situation differently, too.  You can view it as bad luck, or God-ordained.  You can see it as a strange coincidence, or a divine appointment.

Faith is the filter.  It's the evidence of things unseen, but it's also the explanation for how things are seen.  You can change what you see, by changing how you see it. 

~ "Jesus said to her, 

'Did I not say to you that if you would believe, 

you would see the glory of God?" ~

John 11:40

~