A New Perspective
“He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalms 46:10)
How do you see life? We’re all familiar with the saying, “seeing the glass half empty or half full?” This phrase is usually used to determine an individual’s worldview. In recent days, we’ve all experienced life in a whole different way. The COVID-19 virus affected the way we experienced our world. As you are aware, some heeded every caution given or mandated. Others, responded with fear, hesitation, and irritation. How did you respond? Laurie Polich Short in her book, “When Changing Nothing Changes Everything” (2017) tells us, “Your perspective has more power than you think to determine the course of your life.”
We live in a society and we even offer courses here at NBC that teach and embrace change. And we’re all on board for the concepts and theory of change, except when it disrupts our lives or when it causes us to change our perspective or when it causes us discomfort. But, wait a minute, maybe the answer isn’t in making changes. Maybe this is a time and place that God has you for a reason. If we believe the truth of the passage found in Jeremiah 11:9, “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord….” Then maybe it’s time we embrace the place where He has us right now and as I often tell my students when they are facing a tough situation or a tough course or professor (of course that wouldn’t be my courses or me), “you can either fight it, or you can embrace it.”
Yes, there is good and bad in this life. We’ve all experienced it. Scripture reminds us, “that the rain falls on the just and unjust” (Matthew 5:45). What is your response or what is your perspective when a little rain comes into your life? Paul reminds us, “in all circumstances, give thanks…” So, you don’t like the way things are going in your community, workplace, church, or family? Maybe it’s time for a new perspective. Maybe it’s time to realize once and for all, God is in control, this is how the creator wants it to be and despite my lack of understanding, as the infamous Christianese saying goes, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me!”
Where are you choosing to focus today? Where is your hope? Polich states, “where we choose to focus makes all the difference in what we see.” A few years back at a Christian Leadership Alliance meeting, I heard a Christian Lawyer (I know, an oxymoron) state, “as Christians, we are people of hope. If we don’t have hope or express that hope, then we’re a lost nation.” I couldn’t agree more. In this day and time, more than ever, we need people like ourselves who still communicate a message of hope, who still communicate that God is in control, a people that are looking at life in a whole different perspective, eager to change, but okay not to change and that still communicate the truth of the scripture:
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)
Dr. Jerry W. Storz, NBC Faculty and Director of Leadership and Ethics, and Christian Education Ministries Programs
Published: 04/20/2020
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