Perspective

“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (1 Cor. 4:18)

Sometimes I look at life with eyes of disbelief. How is it certain things in my life go the way they do? Or why do some people act the way they act? Heck, why do I act and think like I do? My precious Pearl girl here, she is always looking at things from a different perspective, she makes it seem so simple. I try to look at things from a different perspective because I/we naturally believe everyone sees things from my/our perspective, that is SO NOT true. I/ We tend to get caught up in the temporal things in life, when really, I/we should be more focused on what’s lasting, what is real, things we don’t have to question or at the least shouldn’t question. I am trying to make it my goal to be more like this scripture above. While looking at something or someone I actually consider certain factors such as what God might be up to. We don’t have a clue what God is doing, so to think one way and one way only doesn’t even make sense. There is always a BIGGER picture. My husband just gave me an illustration of Jonah. Jonah thought God should just wipe out the people of Nineveh, but that was not God’s perspective. So, you can see where perspective in this case would be getting a new perspective or end up in the belly of a whale for three days. Not only that, but Jonah’s perspective didn’t allow for the well-being of others. He could have caused a dire jeopardy for himself as well as others had he disobeyed God. Read the whole story in the book of Jonah. How about the story of Jesus and the devil where the devil says to Jesus, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” That was after 40 days in the dessert, no food, no water. (Luke 4:3-4) See the difference in how the devil perceived hunger vs how Jesus perceived hunger? The enemy as well as ourselves will get us focused on temporal things, even false things. We Christians must continually discipline ourselves to focus on eternal realities, instead of the temporal realities of this earth. We all could use a new view on things, a sense of awareness and understanding to the things and people around us. Maybe we should go deeper in our intuition, that place where the Holy Spirit dwells, where real discernment lives. That is just my perception of things.