A NEW PERSPECTIVE

Dear Friend, 

Our perspective on life means everything. 

Perspective is the lens through which we filter life. To put things “in perspective” is to see people, places, and circumstances in proper proportion to one another.

The right perspective depends on our point of view. It’s the difference between watching the traffic from the middle of a busy intersection or the rooftop of a tall building.  

If we view things around us from our limited standpoint, we quickly lose perspective on the people and circumstances swirling around us. What is needed is to step back and look at things from God’s frame of mind. 

This principle is true in the visual arts, where paintings from the Middle Ages appear two dimensional and unrealistic. They lack perspective.  

With the discovery of linear perspective in the Renaissance, artists learned to represent three-dimensional objects realistically on a two-dimensional canvas. 

The secret is to draw everything from a single “vanishing point,” which frames people and objects in their proper height, width, depth, position, and relation to one another.

In real life, the key to living realistically - taking situations in stride and treating others rightly - is to live out of the eternal point of view, which we find in Jesus. “Take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

We can put the day in perspective each morning by quieting ourselves before the Lord and pausing from time to time throughout the day to recenter on him.

“Keep running in the race, which lies ahead of us.  Keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us.” (Hebrews 12:1-2. New Jerusalem Bible).