Do you have your decoder lens?

"Oh no!" 

"What's wrong?" Tom asked. 

"It's raining. Again! My walk will be canceled... I was really looking forward to it." I sighed and picked up the phone, ready to commiserate with Kathy on our disappointment. 

"Well, it's not raining down here," she said. "Hasn't rained for almost two hours."

I was reminded again that what happens on top of our mountain isn't always what is happening down in the valley. 

Sometimes our lives are like that. We 'see' one set of circumstances, completely unaware that on a spiritual level there may be a very different reality. In terms of faith, what our physical eyes see may not be the spiritual truth. The easiest way around this is by using our spiritual eyes: discernment. Wisdom and discernment are our secret decoder lens you might say. When we view our life through the lens of discernment and wisdom, it takes on a very different look. We begin to see a depth that otherwise we might have missed. 

I'm reminded of that when I am training Trey. My earthly concern is that he be obedient, not because I want to control him, but because I want to keep him safe and exercise the 'muscle' of learning to listen and respond. 

On a spiritual level, his obedience to me will help him later in life because as adults we are asked to be obedient to God as well. I want him well-prepared and ready to listen and obey when God speaks to him. I explain to him that it's important that he choose to be obedient to Mom and Dad, because he will use that 'muscle' later on with God. I explain that Moms and Dads need to listen and be obedient to God as well. 

Today, God wants to encourage you that your life is more than what you see with your earthly eyes, and He wants you to consider the spiritual world as well as your immediate surroundings. He wants you to know that He's here, in your life, and you can pray for discernment and wisdom to see life through His lens. 

"And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ..." Philippians 1:9-10