Putting things into perspective.

By John Stallings

I just got an email today that I know I’ve read before. I was glad I got it because it reminded me of something I’ve been thinking about lately. It shows the earth & its size in comparison to other planets such as Venus, Mars, Mercury & our Sun. In this group Earth is a nominally large planet with our Sun being of course much larger than we are. But when it showed our Solar system compared with other lesser known heavenly bodies in nearby galaxies, forget it. The earth & our solar system is so small in comparison to these gigantic bodies that we are hardly visible. Bottom line; we human beings are just “a speck on a speck.” I think the email was captioned—“Putting things into perspective.”

Though I’m not totally sure about the following, I read someplace that we have two eyes basically to give us depth perception. In other words, one eye would be enough for us to see fine but without the second eye we’d lose depth perception or “Perspective.” Imagine if you will, you were sitting on a veranda overlooking the ocean. There was a glass on a table in front of you & a sailboat, let’s say, 500 yards out in the water. If you went to pour water from a pitcher in the glass, with only one eye the sailboat far away would look just about as close as the glass right in front of you. The first few tries you might even pour water on the table. I tested this earlier today & sure enough, with one eye closed; trees up ahead of me looked like they were practically side by side when they were in fact hundreds of yards apart. Again, it’s all about perspective.

Now let’s think about our challenges & problems we face on a daily basis. Without the added blessing of perspective they would become so large in our eyes that we’d tend to sink just gazing at them. However when we place our problems into perspective, they become more manageable, more real.

For example, if you got up one morning with a big red pimple on the end of your nose that would be just awful, but it wouldn’t be so bad if you immediately thought of what it would be like to be eaten by a bear. When you gaze at that big ugly pimple you can say “well, at least I’m not being eaten by a bear.” Believe me this will work.

Here’s another very crude example of how perspective works. It’s going to be extreme so prepare yourself. If you were living under a lot of stress & pressure it wouldn’t be so far-fetched to think you’d wake up some morning & immediately drop your head in your hands thinking about how bad things were. All those bad thoughts would flood your mind & make you sorry you ever woke up. Now, with the blessing of perspective, you’d immediately challenge the bad thoughts by overriding them with thoughts like; “well I haven’t killed anyone. I haven’t even hurt anybody & nobody has physically hurt me. I still have two arms, two good legs, two eyes, ears, a nose & all my eternal organs are intact. I’m still saved & nobody can take that away & they can’t stop God from loving me. I have so many good people & good things in my life what am I worrying about? I even have a few dollars in a dish somewhere & that’s more than I once had. The doctor told me my hearts doing its job, so really, if I just get out of this bed & not tie my shoe- laces too tight I think I can make this day just fine. Yeah, that’s the ticket; my shoes were too tight yesterday.”

You see? You’ve probably been doing this for years & didn’t stop to think you were using the power of perspective. Of course if things got worse you could go into the fact that about half the world is hungry & you are too fat, (sorry—chunky) etc. Usually we don’t have to get that extreme to get ourselves squared away.

If you’ve been reading the Bible long you know that the Old Testament is peppered with the words of Israel’s prophets who spoke up & addressed the people usually in times of trouble. I’m glad I didn’t live back then because it truly was a thankless job. They probably faced lots of hostility from people who either said-“too much information” or “thanks for pointing out the obvious.” And suffice to say they were hearing from other prophets that you & I never heard of. Here’s a few we know about; Zachariah Haggai, Zephaniah, Obadiah, Malachi, & Habakkuk.

Let’s look at Joel. His little book is fairly easy to read, its only three chapters, 73 verses long. Joel wastes no time getting his message to us. It’s gratifying to know his fathers name was Penuel except for the fact that we don’t have a clue who Penuel was. As a matter of fact Joel himself isn’t a big figure in scripture either.

Joel had a strong appreciation for the Temple & the institutional religion of Israel. We don’t know exactly when he lived but we know he loved that Temple. Let me correct that. We know when Joel lived, within a 175 year window. That’s close enough. We also know that Joel ministered in a time when Israel was questioning where in the world God was in their lives. There had been a lot of suffering because of the plague of locusts. They were starting to pull out of the depression & Joel was trying to talk sense to them.

They were looking for what might lie ahead & Joel was speaking to them about that challenge. They were mulling over the fact that they weren’t where they’d been in the past & Joel was trying to tell them if they’d continue to follow God things would improve. “Look around!” Joel kept pointing out. “You have plenty to eat! You survived the locusts! This is how you know God is here, right in the middle of your lives. Look around at all that is hopeful people.”

Joel felt, I guess, that if the Israelites spent all their time and energy thinking about the past they’d miss the promise sprouting up all around them. They were on a new track now. They had survived. Joel said, “Look around at all the evidence of renewal of promise & joy & celebrate! Not only are you going to have plenty to eat God’s going to pour out His spirit on you people.”

“Not only that, God’s going to pour out His spirit on your sons & daughters. They will prophesy, dream dreams & see visions. Look around people & you’ll see. God is getting ready to bless you indeed. Celebrate, celebrate, and celebrate!!”

I don’t know about you but this little prophet Joel has been able to connect with my spirit. He has won my heart. When he invited them to take a step back & see God’s blessings he invited me to do the same & I’m downright happy about. I’m about ready to shout. I’m not trying to kid myself or anyone else into thinking that life is all roses & that no matter how much victory we get we can beat the realities of life. Far from it. But one thing I know; I’ve made it to this day. I’ve plowed through hell “seven ways from Sunday” & by God’s grace I’m still on my feet.

I’ve made hard decisions & lived through the consequences. I’ve encountered fears & kept moving. Look at all this change around us that we’ve had to adjust to. Just when things were going smoothly an illness came or a job change, a new situation arose but we’re still here. Think about all you’ve processed over the decades & kept going.

You took a licking & kept on ticking by God’s grace.

You made the necessary adjustments & here you are.

NOW CELEBRATE!!!!

John