Thursdays are the only day I depend on an alarm. Every once in a while the alarm fails me or, should I say, every once in a while I fail to turn on the alarm. That happened this morning and so I was running late. Now I don’t know how your life works but here is how mine works. On mornings where I am running early I get every single green light between my house and my pre-dawn destination. On mornings when I am running late, the opposite happens and I sit and wait at every red light.
When this kind of thing happens I am of the type of person who usually reacts swiftly. I may have grown up from voicing aloud my displeasure at every red light; but that doesn’t mean I don’t think about saying something.
As you might guess I was running rather late and all the lights were red this morning, especially the longest one at Pioneer Trail and Flying Cloud Drive. I was sitting there calculating how late I was going to be and what I was going to say about it when something came to my attention. I saw all the headlights and thought of all the people behind those headlights who were headed off to their jobs, some of them with time clocks to punch or managers who watch the clock. The sun was just starting to come up, which if I had been on time, I would have missed the sunrise which was really quite beautiful. And with that extra shot of adrenaline that comes with running late I felt very refreshed, awake and ready for my day.
I believe what came to my attention sitting there for a while at Pioneer Trail and Flying Cloud Drive was what we call perspective. Perspective is that take, that viewpoint, that outlook on life, which informs and guides us. Keeping things in perspective helps us to understand that you can’t stress out over everything; you get to choose. A good perspective is one that allows you to take the time to ask the needed question not just the first one that pops into your head.
A clear perspective recognizes that the view I may have is not that of everyone else. Like this morning: I was meeting with a guy who didn’t care that I was running late and who was willing to wait for me. As he said when I arrived and started to apologize, “Quit beating yourself up, we’re good.”
Last week, I invited you to consider a place where you have sought out a clearer perspective. This week I would like to invite you to consider situations where/when perspective has snuck up on you. Sometimes what is sneaking up on us is a whole other way of viewing our life and our world. And sometimes that whole other perspective is – in part – God’s perspective. Recognizing and trying to live in God’s perspective is what Jesus taught and lived. We call it grace and this Sunday morning our worship will explore why an understanding that our perspective is not always God’s perspective is so important.
Keep the Faith!
Pastor Dan
When this kind of thing happens I am of the type of person who usually reacts swiftly. I may have grown up from voicing aloud my displeasure at every red light; but that doesn’t mean I don’t think about saying something.
As you might guess I was running rather late and all the lights were red this morning, especially the longest one at Pioneer Trail and Flying Cloud Drive. I was sitting there calculating how late I was going to be and what I was going to say about it when something came to my attention. I saw all the headlights and thought of all the people behind those headlights who were headed off to their jobs, some of them with time clocks to punch or managers who watch the clock. The sun was just starting to come up, which if I had been on time, I would have missed the sunrise which was really quite beautiful. And with that extra shot of adrenaline that comes with running late I felt very refreshed, awake and ready for my day.
I believe what came to my attention sitting there for a while at Pioneer Trail and Flying Cloud Drive was what we call perspective. Perspective is that take, that viewpoint, that outlook on life, which informs and guides us. Keeping things in perspective helps us to understand that you can’t stress out over everything; you get to choose. A good perspective is one that allows you to take the time to ask the needed question not just the first one that pops into your head.
A clear perspective recognizes that the view I may have is not that of everyone else. Like this morning: I was meeting with a guy who didn’t care that I was running late and who was willing to wait for me. As he said when I arrived and started to apologize, “Quit beating yourself up, we’re good.”
Last week, I invited you to consider a place where you have sought out a clearer perspective. This week I would like to invite you to consider situations where/when perspective has snuck up on you. Sometimes what is sneaking up on us is a whole other way of viewing our life and our world. And sometimes that whole other perspective is – in part – God’s perspective. Recognizing and trying to live in God’s perspective is what Jesus taught and lived. We call it grace and this Sunday morning our worship will explore why an understanding that our perspective is not always God’s perspective is so important.
Keep the Faith!
Pastor Dan
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