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| Proper
Perspective
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“Perspective” was
originally the science of optics. It is now used in
conversation to describe a mental view or disposition; it’s
how one views life. For this little piece, perspective is your
viewpoint about life.
How we view life is vital to our happiness as well as to our
eternal destiny. May I offer a few suggestions about a good
perspective?
Begin by getting a proper view of life. Culture is a
poor measuring stick. Look around you. People everywhere are
more interested in being somebody than in being a good
somebody. They have elevated success to such a high place that
character and excellence don’t seem to matter. Society
rules. It calls the shots. It’s more interested in money
than character, more concerned about leisure than
accomplishment, more dedicated to pleasure than piety.
And we are immersed in a cult of youth. Today, if you’re
old, you’re of no account. You sort of get in the way. Look
at the advertising– television, magazines, newspapers,
billboards–they’re all recommending youth as the main
ingredient in a contented life. If you’re old, you’re
ugly, so buy creams that make you look young (even though
you’re not). If you’re old, you don’t understand, so
just keep quiet and let the young, knowledgeable intellectuals
speak. Furthermore, if you’re old, you’re out of date, out
of touch, and you would do well to just get out of the way.
And what ever happened to wisdom, having been “down the
road”? Worldliness has replaced wisdom.
Take a more serious view of life. Soberness is the
best way to view life. “It is better to go to the house of
mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the
end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart,” we
are told in Ecclesiastes 7:2. Now that doesn’t mean that you
go around with a sad look as if you’re on the way to a
funeral all the time, but it does mean that a serious-minded
person is one that has deduced what life is all about, that
it’s short at best, and that life, after all, is mostly a
probationary period during which we are to equip ourselves for
the really superior life reserved for the faithful. That’s
reason for being serious, don’t you think?
Listen to the right stuff. Yes, I said, listen. There
is great value in learning to listen. We are within the mark
when we use the terminology “pay attention.” It suggests
that we owe our attention. “Take heed how you hear,” Jesus
said in Luke 18:8. Listening is so important; and the right
kind of listening imperative. We sometimes listen to the wrong
things. We elevate the inferior to a place of the superior.
One of the most obvious displays of that is seen in our
propensity for listening to gossip. We almost relish in it.
Why is it that we listen attentively to the wrong things and
tune out the right? We need to learn to listen to the right
things. There’s great benefit in that. “Don’t take to
heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your
servant curse you” (Ecclesiastes 7:21). If we don’t listen
to the wrong things, we won’t be so often upset.
View God’s wisdom as the standard in your life.
God’s ways are always superior. People in this age seem to
think that God’s word is out of touch with reality, that it
has no practical value for living in today’s world. Nothing
could be further from reality. It still “thoroughly
furnishes a man unto every good work” (II Timothy 3:17),
just as it always has. It’s still “quick and powerful and
sharper than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12), just as
it’s always been, and it’s still true that there is “one
that judgeth,” He says–“the word that I have spoken, the
same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). Without
the word of God we are lost at sea with no compass. When we
try to direct our own path, we not only look hopelessly
foolish, we are hopelessly foolish. “It is not in man to
direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23) is as true today as
the day it was first penned by the prophet.
Realize that God has a plan. He has a plan for
man’s salvation from sin, as well as for his continued
faithfulness. He has revealed to us His true nature–not only
his love, but His wrath as well. He has shown us in Jesus
Christ an example of the quality life, one dedicated to
service to both God and man. He has given us a mutual
encouragement in the church, one that edifies, inspires
courage, ennobles, and gives us an abiding hope. He has given
us faith to know, hope to anchor, and love to hold everything
together. He has marriage laws; then laws for husbands and
wives. He has laws for rearing children, as well as laws for
children being reared. He has laws regarding integrity–in
business, in pleasure, in duress or peace. And He has given us
assurance of great rewards, rewards so wonderful they defy
understanding, much less adequate description.
How do you view life? It’s up to you what perspective you
choose, you know.
Dee Bowman
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Copyright (C)
2008
Southside Church of Christ
All rights reserved.
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