Hi First Presbyterian Church,
It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! My family and I are driving back from Wisconsin today, so I’ve automated this message to go out to you. But I wanted to reflect on something that happened to me during my time away. During our trip to a family reunion in Green Bay, we made a few stops along the way to reconnect with friends and to discover some new places. We stopped in Wheaton (where Laura and I met), Chicago, Milwaukee, and Indiana Dunes National Park. If you’ve never been to the Indiana Dunes, I highly recommend it! It’s one of our newest national parks, and it is awesome! In addition to magnificent sand dunes, it has beautiful beaches along Lake Michigan. You can look out over the lake and see the skyline of Chicago!
Well, we stopped for a couple days to enjoy the beaches of the national park. Now, if we’re all being honest, I think many people don’t like to be seen in their swimsuits. I’m not immune from that, and it’s sometimes hard not to think that everyone is looking at me when I’m at the beach. However, I discovered something interesting during this particular beach visit.
I’ve been dealing with an eye infection for the past week, and one thing that has meant is that I haven’t been able to wear my contact lenses. I don’t have prescription sunglasses, so, if I’m not wearing my contact lenses, I can’t wear sunglasses and expect to see very well. While we were at the beach, I was wearing my normal prescription glasses, but the sun was so bright that it was hurting my eyes (even more because of my eye infection). So, I decided to take off my normal glasses and to wear my non-prescription sunglasses. It was a huge relief to my eyes, but I couldn’t see anything very clearly… including the other people around me! I couldn’t see whether they were looking at me with judgment, with approval, or if they were even looking at me at all! Do you know what happened inside me as a result? I felt so much more present with my family and able to enjoy my time with them more fully! The only difference in my experience happened inside myself. The same beach and the same weather would have been there regardless of whether or not I was wearing my prescription glasses. The same crowd would have been there regardless of whether or not I was wearing my prescription glasses. My family would have been there regardless of whether or not I was wearing my prescription glasses. The only difference was my eyewear and the fact I couldn’t see very well!
Maybe this is silly thing to reflect on, but it really made me realize how much I sometimes worry about other people’s opinions. I have a feeling I’m not alone in that. What if we didn’t worry about what other people see when they look at us? What if we didn’t worry about other people’s opinions of us? What if the only opinion we cared about was God’s, who says about each one of us, “I love you no matter what”? If that was true, I think life would be a lot like my experience at the beach. We would be able to enjoy ourselves and the people we care about more. We could be more fully present in each moment of life. And we would discover that other people’s opinions of us don’t actually matter that much after all.
My prayer for you today is that the loudest voice you hear in life is God’s voice of love and embrace.
Peace to you,

Pastor Aaron