Resurrection-Tinted Glasses

I don’t see the world as it truly is, but I see the world as it should be.

When I was in first grade I found myself sitting in the front row. It wasn’t that I was misbehaving or trying to gain extra favor for a better grade. I simply could’t read the board from anywhere else. And so in first grade I started wearing glasses.

I didn’t see the world as it truly was; I saw slightly blurred lines where a crisp Retina display should have been. But my glasses helped me see the world as it should be.

Year after year, my eyes would continue to change. Every new perscription was outgrown within nine months. The world was growing blurrier and blurrier and my glasses where growing thicker and thicker. The world I truly see has become a world of featurless color. Unless it’s right under my nose, I don’t see anything as it should be but as it has become for me.

We live in a world of blurred lines. We live in a world of decay and destruction, a domination system where the myth of redemptive violence reigns. We live in a world of us and them, “haves” and “have nots,” in and out. We live in a world where the gap between rich and poor grows every second, where the 1% speak for us all, and where money doesn’t always buy happiness but it sure tries to.

The resurrection is the perscription for this world of blurred lines. The resurrection is the pair of glasses that snaps the world into focus, allowing us to make out shape and form where before there had only been blur and blob. The resurrection allows us to recognize the world as it turly is (blurry) and see the world as it should be. When we put on resurrection tinted glasses, we begin to see resurrection everywhere.

I see resurrection in every sunrise, after every rainfall, in a steeping cup of tea, in songs and hymns and poems, in stories and movies and history. I see resurrection on the street, in the park, at the farmer’s market, in the news. I see resurrection when I look out the window, when close my eyes at night, when I awake each morning. I see resurrection in every thought and emotion, every idea and action. I see resurrection everywhere.

I see resurrection as the hope that happened and the hope that happens today. I see resurrection as divine time travel, the future brought into the present. I see resurrection as the eternal possibility for everyone and everything, everywhere.

I see a world filled with the color of resurrection. I see a world filled with the hope of resurrection. I see a world filled with the need fo resurrection.

I see a domination system crumbling, the myth of redemptive violence debunking, and death dying. Because I see resurrection everywhere. I see the world as it truly is, but I also see the world as it should be.

Today and everyday I wear resurrection tinted glasses.

 

Jim Kast-Keat

Jim Kast-Keat is the Associate Minister for Education at Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village of New York City. He is a divergent thinker, an ideation specialist, and an aspiring minimalist. Prior to working at Middle he helped lead ikonNYC in New York, NY, worked as a Product Designer with Sparkhouse in Minneapolis, MN and was a pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI. To find out more about Jim go to www.jimkastkeat.com or follow him on twitter at @IdeasDoneDaily.