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It's Time to Take off the Sunglasses

 Americans have a favorite pastime, and no, I'm not referring to baseball or football. This pastime doesn't cost any money. You don't need tickets, and there's no set game time. It happens every day. You don't need to be physically fit. You don't need special training. We do it at book club, at work, on the road, in meetings, having lunch with friends, etc. You get the idea. What is it? Complaining.

We love to complain, and I'm right there in the fray, tearing everything and everyone apart. Sometimes it wears me out.

My mom passed away many years ago, and one of my all-time favorite memories of life with her goes back to my summer between high school and college. We worked together that summer. Drove together every morning, bright and early, right into the rising sun.

One morning, my mom reached into her purse and grabbed her sunglasses, putting them on just as we rounded the bend on the St. Louis-rush-hour-busy road that put us directly in the sun's path. She ripped those glasses off faster than I knew she could move and tossed them in my lap, vehemently exclaiming, "Oh! Lori, clean those! They're awful! Oh my gosh! They're just awful! You've got to clean those for me! I can't see a thing!" I picked the glasses off my lap to perform the requested cleaning. One look at them, and all I could do was laugh. And laugh. And laugh until tears rolled down my cheeks. I could barely catch a breath to tell my mom what the "dirt" on her sunglasses really was.

One of the lenses had popped out of its place. Through one eye, my mom had seen brightness and light. Through the other eye, everything was dark...not dirt.

Complaining happens when we look through dark lenses. The dark makes it a little easier on our eyes, but it deceives us. What we see through darkness isn't what is there in reality. 

Maybe it's time we all take off the sunglasses and look at life with a little Son shining on it.

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