Re-Lensing: Seeing Failure Through Heaven’s Eyes
Why God’s perspective transforms setbacks into training grounds.
In 1950, Sam Walton had four kids and was staring failure in the face.
His retail stores were being ripped out from under him. He’d overlooked a critical clause in his lease, and his landlord took advantage. The buildings, the inventory, the business itself — gone.
There wasn’t another space in town big enough to house his stores. With no options, he sold out at liquidation prices rather than drown in bankruptcy.
Later he said:
“I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. It really was like a nightmare. I had built the best variety store in the whole region and worked hard in the community, done everything right, and now I was being kicked out of town. It didn’t seem fair.”
Sam Walton — the man who would go on to create Walmart — started again from zero.
Abraham Lincoln’s story? Same pattern.
1832: defeated for legislature
1833: failed in business (again)
1836: mental breakdown
1838: defeated for speaker
1840: defeated for elector
1843: defeated for Congress
1846: finally elected
1848: defeated for Congress again
1855: defeated for Senate
1856: defeated for VP
1859: defeated for Senate
1860: elected President
Failure wasn’t the end. It was the training ground.
I call this process re-lensing.
Reframing gives something new meaning. “Nothing is happening to you, it’s happening for you.” That’s a reframe.
But re-lensing goes further.
It’s like swapping glasses. Suddenly you’re not just changing the meaning, you’re changing the vantage point. You’re no longer stuck in the middle of the story — you’re looking at it from above.
This is what Paul means in Romans 12:2: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Re-lensing is choosing to see through heaven’s lens. Not just your interpretation, but God’s.
When I compare my own problems to Sam Walton’s in 1950, I realize mine don’t stack up.
My kids have never gone without food. My family has never been forced to relocate.
Perspective creates strength. And when that perspective comes from Jesus, it’s not just grit — it’s the fruit of the Spirit at work.
Here’s why this matters: what you expect is often what you get.
When your lens shifts to God’s truth, your expectation shifts to His promises.
There’s no shortage of people crying that life is unbearable, that the world is falling apart.
But in the Kingdom? Life is always moving forward.
God’s story doesn’t stall. The train doesn’t stop. Step off, and you risk missing the very thing He intends to do in you and through you.
So if you can’t reframe it, re-lens it.
See it through heaven’s eyes.
Think of Viktor Frankl, staring death in the face in a concentration camp. His body was trapped, but his mind was free.
He discovered the last human freedom — to choose your own thoughts.
And here’s the deeper truth: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).
Frankl chose his thoughts. You and I — in Christ — have something even greater: “We have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16).
That means our lens isn’t just positive thinking. It’s divine perspective.
And that perspective changes everything.