A Change in Perpective Changes Everything
I was devastated. A fire on April 13, 2019 completely destroyed the Dunes boardwalk pavilion in Ocean Grove NJ. Nicknamed “God’s Square Mile,” Ocean Grove is a beautiful seaside town at the Jersey shore, and my favorite local vacation spot. The Dunes had just been rebuilt after the destruction from Hurricane Sandy a few years ago. They had done a wonderful job, and I deeply felt the loss on behalf of the owners and merchants who had rebuilt as well as the vacationers who would now miss out on dining there.
But then on April 15, 2019, another fire made the news. Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was in flames.
Somehow, the Dunes fire seemed so small in comparison. It’s all a matter of perspective.
My heart’s desire is to bring an eternal perspective to our earthly situations, to widen our focus to see that the God with whom we converse about our troubles has no trouble keeping the entire universe spinning in perfect harmony.
In our daily lives here on earth, we often receive news that threatens to devastate us. We see what’s right around us and lose sight of the God who inhabits eternity.
The writer of Hebrews tells us, “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.” Heb.13:14
We are engaged in spiritual warfare, and an effective enemy tactic is to distract our focus. He uses busyness, family or friend problems, work concerns, over-sensitivity, self-consciousness, financial worries, even national and local elections, to attract our attention. But when we concentrate on eternal matters, the things of this world dim in comparison. Like looking through the lens of a camera, if our focus is on things nearby, those details in the background are fuzzy. When we adjust the lens, we can bring the background into crisp detail, and the close things are less harrowing. We can see them – we’re not sticking our heads in the sand, but they no longer consume our thoughts throughout our days.
Francis Chan has a wonderful illustration about the brevity of life that helps to bring an eternal perspective. Using an “endless” rope to reference eternity, he points to the short piece in his hand to indicate life on earth and challenges us to focus on preparing for our endless eternity rather than our short earthly life. Take four minutes and watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86dsfBbZfWs
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
If we choose, as Paul did, what we focus on and “fix our eyes … on the eternal,” by comparison, we will be able to view our troubles as “light and momentary” AND “achieving eternal glory.”
A change in perspective helps us see our troubles as blessings in disguise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86dsfBbZfWs
You are right, Susan; we too often just focus on the things in front of us. This can get very discouraging. I need to trust God to work out all things for the good. I pray that I will keep my eyes focused on things above.
So true Susan, our perspective can change a lot, especially our thinking. So thankful for the promise of better things to come, may we stay fixated on that.