In learning to focus in life, perspective is crucial. Sometimes, we’re so close to an issue or situation, that we can’t focus and our perspective is skewed. In other situations, our distance makes us out of touch and we lack an understanding of the needs on the ground.
On a recent trip across the country, the pilot kept us low enough to see everything below for quite a distance. I loved watching the landscape change from the hills of Tennessee to the flatlands of Arkansas and Texas. It provided a lesson in perspective.
Sometimes we’re so close, so invested in our current reality, that we forget that there’s a larger picture, a larger purpose to life.
Pulling up, pulling away allows margin and occasion to reevaluate how much time, energy, and value we’re giving to something or someone. It helps us to ask,
- Is this a healthy relationship?
- Am I stressed over this issue, when I don’t need to be?
- Would my time be better spent somewhere else?
- Have I lost balance in life because of the time I’m putting on this one project or person?
- Is this what God wants for my life right now?
When I looked out of that airplane window, as I’ve done so many times before, I’m still struck with the way everything looks so small from above. We don’t even see people, because they are even smaller than the farmlands or buildings.
Why do I think of myself as so important, when I’m just a tiny speck in relation to the entire world?
But I do…
Until he reminds me, yet again, that I’m not. It’s all about Him; what he wants and has in mind for me. I may be thousands of feet in the air, but I’m suddenly focused in once again on what’s important.
Because I see it from his perspective — at least in some small way. And that helps.
I hope it helps you.
What will it take for you to gain some perspective today or this year? Do what it takes for His sake and yours.
Grace and Peace