Perspective

Have you ever noticed what a difference perspective makes in how we view things?

I think about this sometimes as I am driving down the road (please don’t think this is too strange, it is just how my mind works) in the rain.  If I were to stare at just one drop of water on my windshield while I was driving, it would be very dangerous, but my perspective has to be broader than that.  I have to look past that one drop to the entire environment around me to be a safe driver.  Or if you have ever had a fly in your car with you, do you ever think about the perspective of the fly.  In general, a housefly flies through the air at a speed of about 5 mph, but as you are driving down the road, that same fly is going up to 70 mph without even knowing it.  

Do you ever think about how other people view the world?  You know, people who have been abused, who are poor, who are uneducated, who are exceedingly rich, or really just people who are different than you.  We all have a different perspective with which we view the world, and this perspective can greatly change who we are and how we react to things.  What has shaped your perspective of the world…Your parents, your church, growing up in America, your race, your economic status, your school, your friends, the Gospel…

We have had the pleasure of having our perspective changed by spending a good deal of time in another country.  We have seen complete poverty on a level that no person in America will ever truly understand (and that is not hyperbolic, poverty in Haiti is different than poverty in America).  We have had our perspective changed by the complete and utter love that we feel for our children at All Things New and it has changed us.  I have had my perspective changed when I married the greatest physical gift that GOD has ever given me in my wife Jessica.  Many of you have had your perspective changed by holding your child for the first time and having the responsibility to raise them and love them.  But as much as these things change us, the sad thing about life is that many of us cannot truly get past the perspective that we have always known to the point where our lives are completely and utterly changed forever.  To the point that we are different at the core of our being and everyone can see it.  To the point that people we have known forever all of a sudden take notice.  Maybe they don’t like it, maybe it makes them uncomfortable, and maybe they wish you would change back, but they see that you aren’t who you used to be.

Here is the point of this blog today, our perspective has to be changed when we come into contact with the love of our Savior.

What I mean to say is that our perspective on life did not change because we went down to Haiti and met some children that we fell in love with.  Our perspective on life began to change when we began to see Jesus Christ for who He truly is (we are not fully there, but we are trying) and what He did for us on the Cross.  I still struggle in some way every single day of my life, but I have been changed by the blood and the love of Jesus.  What I want each of us to ask ourselves today (including myself) is what is my perspective on today, on my family, on my life?  Have I been completely and utterly changed by my Savior or am I still living for myself?  

Because when we truly come to face-to-face with the GOD of the universe who also loves us and has given Himself up for us, then everything changes…It has to.  I can’t come into the presence of perfect love and be the same.  

The love of my parents changed me and they are far from perfect.  The love of my Grandparents changed me and they made mistakes all the time.  The love of my wife changed me more than I could ever imagine, and as great as she is, she is just as far from perfect as I am.

The love of a perfect GOD has to change our perspective and if it hasn’t, have we truly experienced the love of GOD?