Point Of ViewSampel

Looking Through God’s Lenses

My first shift from seeing everything through fuzzy eyes to seeing with crystal clarity happened when I received my first pair of glasses in the fourth grade. Putting on those glasses was something I will never forget. I finally saw what I had been missing out on all those years.

Even though this lesson was in the physical sense of sight, I learned that the same truth applied in the metaphorical sense. My point of view comes into sharp focus when I look through the lens of God’s promises. My hope has been that my vision would move further away from my own thoughts, opinions, and interpretations and closer to the way God sees things. 

God’s lens is there, and I have the blessing and opportunity to choose to look through my lens alone (limited) or His (limitless). My lens looks like fear; His looks like trust. My lens can look like disappointment; His looks like hope. My lens can look deceiving; His looks like truth. 

I now know that I don’t want to look at anything without the lens of Scripture. Believe me, I have tried to see things on my own. Thankfully, God has brought some amazing hearts, friends, and teachers into my story to press into my heart, encourage me, and redirect me to that big pair of glasses so that I see through His lens—time and time again. 

As I look back on this adventure-packed path that God has placed me on—from being a walk-on college-softball player from Cranston, Rhode Island, to dropping into the Australian outback by plane on season 2 of Survivor, to voicing my thoughts and opinions on The View, to hosting a news program on the FOX News Channel—I still blink a few times! This journey assures me that God has already written my story. He’s been there all along, at every juncture, failure, and next turn, putting things back into focus. He is the ultimate lens crafter. 

My sight is not perfect. My point of view constantly needs to be refocused. I am a fixer-upper, a work in progress. But what I’ve learned is that until I see myself as God sees me, I am not seeing clearly, and until I see God in everything, I am not seeing at all. 

Describe a situation that you saw differently when you looked through God’s lens instead of your own.