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Monday, April 25, 2011

Rose Colored Glasses

Something happened this week that brought to mind a song titled “Rose Colored Glasses”. The version I’m thinking of was written by George F. Baber and John Conlee and performed by the latter of the two. The song entertains the emotional battle of a man trying to understand a relationship in which he invested a great deal tyme and effort only to have it go awry. As he analyzes the life he has with his girlfriend, he basically concludes that breaking ties is the best thing for both of them, but he always finds a way to refute his deduction; his rose colored glasses.

“These rose colored glasses that I’m looking through,
show only the beauty ‘cause they hide all the truth.”

Those two short lines are rather significant when you think about it. A lot of tymes we see what we want to see instead of what is real or what is right in front of us. Our judgment gets clouded by our thoughts of the way something should be and by the tyme we’re finished, the old rusty tractor in the front yard is the latest model, fresh off the assembly line. Point being, the color of a rose can beauty up even the worst of situations.

The happening this week, however, made me wonder if the opposite is true as well. Now, what the opposite of rose colored glasses might be in similar terms, I’m not sure; thorn colored glasses perhaps? The concept however would be that when wearing ‘thorn colored glasses’, we see something as far worse than it really is.

To better relay the situation, allow me to offer this background. There are two men in my acquaintance that have very dissimilar outlooks on practically every aspect of their existence. It’s probably safe to say that their accounts of agreement in their fifty plus years of association are of percentages smaller than that of an atom. Up is to down and east is to west when it comes to both the personalities and mindsets of these men.

Now, perhaps you think me a bit overdramatic, but in all honesty, drama seems to be the key ingredient in the dishes that these two men offer on the menu. I cannot describe it, but the animosity that exists between them is incomprehensible at best and at worst, well, I don’t think I want to venture down that destructive path. Suffice it to write that over the years the differences between them have constructed a wall of abhorrence that no one can scale, though many a good person has tried.

So this week when both men were party to a particular function, you can only imagine the arrows of hostility soaring through the room and the rumble of under the breath, back handed comments that ensued. It was really a sad display of humanity or perhaps a lack of humanity altogether. I think the worst thing about it though was how it affected everyone else in the room. I watched people tense, hang their heads, shield their eyes and some I think sat in earnest prayer as the mood of the room blackened with every angry word spoken between them.

The incident was disguised as a current issue, but as I listened to the irritation behind the words, I knew there was more to it that what was being said. Looking back, I wish I’d asked the Lord for the courage to call both men out on the underlying issues instead of trying to defuse the one that was about to explode in front of me, but as the old adage says, hindsight is 20/20. It’s that hindsight however that prompted me to my theory of “thorn colored glasses”. Truth be told, the current “issue”, while important on some level, was being clouded by years and years of ill will toward each other. I then had to ask myself, were these two men viewing each other through clear eyes or were they so jaded by the past that even the smallest issue seemed so problematic that it warranted World War III?

There was a point when Moses was struggling to keep the Israelites in order and finally in Deuteronomy 1:12 he said to them, “But you are such a heavy load to carry! How can I deal with all your problems and bickering?” The truth is, only Jesus can bear such a heavy load as two men who refuse to deal with their problems. I know now that I cannot change either of these men, nor can I make them see things any differently. I can pray for them, but in the end, only Jesus can perform the necessary eye surgery and eliminate their desire to wear “thorn colored glasses”.

~LK~

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