A week ago, I was worried.
Every time I checked my blood pressure with one machine, the numbers were frightening—between 145 and 170 over 86. My mind raced. I wondered what was happening to my health. The more I checked, the more anxious I became.
Then I remembered that I had another blood pressure monitor, one that had been given to me as a gift. I dusted it off and decided to check again.
This time, the reading was 133 over 86.
At that moment, I learned a lesson that had little to do with blood pressure and everything to do with life.
Sometimes it is not that our circumstances are as terrible as they appear. Sometimes we are looking through the wrong lens.
The first machine made me believe I was in immediate danger. The second reminded me that I needed a different perspective before drawing conclusions.
Life is much the same. We all have lenses through which we view our experiences—fear, disappointment, rejection, failure, criticism, or comparison. Through those lenses, every challenge appears bigger than it really is. But when we change the lens—to faith, hope, wisdom, gratitude, or truth—the same situation can look very different.
Changing the lens does not deny reality. It simply helps us see reality more clearly.
Before concluding that your life is falling apart, ask yourself: Am I looking through the right lens?
Sometimes the problem is not as big as it first appears. Sometimes all that needs to change is the way we see it.
