What a Difference Perspective Makes
Six years ago, I knew God had me on a mission. I knew I was mandated to “rise to the occasion”. In spite of the challenging times we were in during that entire year, I knew God had given me a mandate that included finding the blessing in every situation we were encountering – to find the rainbow in the many rainy and cloudy days we were going through. Then, to write about it and live out “tough times don’t last but tough people do”. Help others see that in the worst of times, God will shine His bright light to penetrate the darkest nights. It was during those times that I begin to write blogs about our experiences. In the worst of times, with God’s help, we prevailed and, in fact, found the silver lining in every one of those clouds. We realized that our perspective made the biggest difference. Rather than the perspective of “Why me? Why us?”, we lived in the perspective of “being safe in the middle of the storm”.
Along with my blogging, I was intent, each day, to find the “just right” photo or picture that would help me illustrate my point. I’d go through hundreds of photos before finding “the one”. That photo might have ended up being way too pixelated to use – especially when I enlarged the photo and added text to it. Could you have been able to tell that this distorted photo here was this girl and boy? When we are in the midst of a difficult season, it becomes overwhelming because we can’t see a way out or see what the purpose is or see when it will change. We want to know why and we want to make sense of it all. But when we take a moment to remember Who is painting the picture, we can rest in our faith.
When we let our own limited perspective get in our way, we miss Him in the middle of it all. When we dwell on the outcome, we miss what is happening now. He is right there with us. He knows the way. Isaiah reminds us that His ways and thoughts are beyond us. There are things we just can’t see or know. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’ {Isaiah 55:8-9}
Perspective. You know the saying “You can’t see the forest for the trees.” Oftentimes we’re so caught up in the middle of it all that we forget that we are smack dab in the place where God can fulfill His destiny and purpose in us the best. I know we all can look back on a time with a different perspective and see the hand of God at work.
Even though we may not see things clearly, just hold on. Time will pass and we will see it as clearly as He had planned. It will be like seeing with new eyes. Seeing things through His planned perspective. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ {Jeremiah 29:11}
The first photo here is almost incomprehensibie, but once I tweaked it, it became perfectly clear — two adorable kids (the youngest in each of my two children’s families). Now we can sing that song ” I can see clearly now, the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind, it’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright) SON-Shiny day..
What a difference the proper perspective can make. Keeping our eyes focused on the Storm Chaser, the Burden Bearer, the Safe Shelter — keeps our perspective in focus!