I took this picture from a bird’s eye view . . . Can anyone guess what this is?
Perspective is a crazy thing. It can make things look so big they are insurmountable. Sounds like life sometimes doesn’t it? Imagine standing down in the bottom of this canyon. Looking up makes me tired. That’s a lot of steps.
All through the Bible there are stories of people chosen by God to take on a task that seemed insurmountable. Moses argued with God when God asked him to lead the Israelites. {Read Exodus 4} Moses argued with GOD! But . . . the Israelites ended up in the land God had promised them . . .
Jonah argued with God about going to Nineveh and even ran from God. But Jonah ended up right where God wanted him and great things happened there. But . . . an entire city was redeemed. {The whole book of Jonah is worth reading – all four chapters!}
These are great examples to encourage us. As we read their stories, we discover the journey is long and crazy, full of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Are you having your own struggle in the wilderness right now – just like Moses and the Israelites? Do you feel like you have been swallowed up in the belly of a whale or large fish like Jonah was? Is God trying to get your attention? In the end both men realized there was no outrunning God. It was then they quit running from and turned to God.
Oh goodness, we think, but how many times do we argue with or ignore or turn and run from what we know God is asking of us? Have you ever been terrified when you are facing what seems to be a giant? I know I have.
Thing is – I have learned to look to God for the answers. The other thing is – I have found Him there waiting to guide me up the mountain – when I turn to Him – when everything around me in the world seems insurmountable and overwhelming, I no longer have to fear my lack of strength because I depend on God’s.
Psalm 116:1-2
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.
When we look at challenges from a narrow view, way too close, our perspective is limited.
When we broaden that perspective, stand back and look at it from different angles, we discover it might not be the giant it first seemed to be. We gave it too much power.
This is a plant, yes, a plant. Eventually the life within broke through the hard shell and grew towards the light of the sun. A vine sprung forth growing higher and higher up the trellis provided for support.
As the years pass by and through me, leaving their mark, I have learned how important it is to challenge my perspective. In doing so, my view of a situation can drastically change. The God given life within me can break through the hard shell of the facade I created in self protection over the years.
As I struggle fiercely to gain understanding of a situation, I’ve learned that when I ask God to show me, to lead me and to reveal to me how to interpret what’s happening – that’s when my perspective changes and something new is revealed to me.
A new perspective breaks through and many times it reveals something in me that I have not been aware of.
Just as most of you never even knew this plant existed, the same thing happens when we invite God into our lives. We discover parts of us we never knew existed. We discover God in new ways. A new life springs forth, changing much of who we are, how we see the world we live in and how we decide to move through it – turning from or turning to God.
In this picture, zoom in to see the vine and you can’t even see the flower. It’s funny – not funny – how it just might be the very act of the shell of the plant releasing the life within it that is the most remarkable part of its story.
Maybe the same applies to me.
Psalm 31:3-5 The Message
You’re my cave to hide in,
my cliff to climb.
Be my safe leader,
be my true mountain guide.
Free me from hidden traps;
I want to hide in you.
I’ve put my life in your hands.
You won’t drop me,
you’ll never let me down.
Examine your methods of perspective. Consider finding a deeper way to create a new perspective. One that will reveal parts of you and your world you have never been aware of before. Your life will become richer and fuller of a meaning you might have missed.
“To You, God, to You be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”