Have you ever tried swimming without goggles? When we can’t see clearly, we swim into people or walls or any number of other obstacles.

Goggles help us see and navigate places where it’s nearly impossible to do so. They serve as interpretive devices that help us make sense of our environment.

Oftentimes, life feels like swimming in a crowded pool without goggles. What if we had special goggles to help us navigate our days?

In the gospel, God provides such a gift. A good friend of mine, Nathan Knight, pastor of Restoration Church in Washington, D.C., once used the term “gospel goggles” to describe what growing in both the knowledge and application of the gospel is like. This works when we take the storyline of Scripture and apply it to our circumstances.

For example, how can Paul instruct the  Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 to “not grieve as others do who have no hope?” Because the whole purpose of the letter was to help them wear “gospel goggles” so they may see death and eternity from God’s perspective.

For Christians, death is not the end of our story. The resurrection is! And though grief is right and good when death occurs (John 11:35), the hope of the gospel even transforms our grief.

Are you learning to wear gospel goggles? This is the essence of discipleship — learning and applying the good news of Jesus to every situation in life and then helping others do the same.

It’s great if one person in the pool has goggles, but how incredible would it be if everyone had them? Ask God to open your eyes to see and treasure the gospel and then to help you wear it as a lens to interpret the world.

by Josh Reed  /  Adult Evangelism and Discipleship  /  Baptist State Convention of North Carolina