Perspective
by John Selbak on Mar.04, 2009, under Thoughts
It’s easy to see that others can lack perspective. A child declares that they can’t live without a particular toy, but as adults we smile and assure them that their life can be lived without it. If only they had our perspective.
A teenager deals with heartbreak at the end of their first relationship and feels the intense pain that it brings. They feel they might never love again. But we assure them that the pain eventually does subside, and that though they can hardly imagine it at the time, they will find love again. If only they had our perspective.
We struggle with the pressures of life that bear down on us, while others who are facing crippling illness or death remind us of how relatively well off we are and how much life we still have before us. If only we had their perspective.
Jesus often reminded us in subtle and not-so-subtle ways that we lack His perspective. We are often self-centered, while He reminded us that we were created to love others as ourselves. We often cling to our possessions, while He reminded us that everything that was made belongs to the Lord. We live entirely for this life, while He reminded us that we were also meant to live in anticipation of the life to come in eternity. We are obsessed with our own needs and desires, but miss the movement of God in the greater stories around us and throughout the arch of our own life story.
We are in anguish over all the pain and suffering and poverty and illness in the world, while He gave us the ability, resources and opportunity to address almost all of those things. We struggle with doubts and fears and worries, and ignore the truth of an ever-present God who invites us into His presence and into a place where there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more worry and no more pain.
If only we had His perspective.
March 10th, 2009 on 6:21 pm
I resonate with what you are saying here John. It is extremely easy to get consumed with living life from our perspective. It can even seem ridiculous to try and live life from a perspective that is not our own. In fact, I don’t think we can live from a persptive that we have not taken ownership of. Through the process of the spiritual disciplines, we must form our perspective to be more like Christ’s so that we can follow God as we should.
I think this also relates to Ben’s earlier post about bearing each other’s burdens. When our perspective is so focused on ourselves whether in good times or bad, it is the responsibility of other Christians to come along side of us and encourage us towards Christ’s perspective. Perhaps that is partially what bearing each other’s burdens means. Instead of trying to experience someone’s pain or simply feel bad for him or her, we should be helping them to have Christ’s perspective so that Christ can bear our burdens. I’m not sure about this, but it is an interesting thought.
August 14th, 2009 on 4:52 pm
Hey John,
Wished that I was able to gain a more healthy perspective (world view) as I grew up. I have been suffering from the lack of the true perspective but hope I get a little closer to the “real thing baby” every day.