A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE
A man who was losing his memory went to his doctor for advice. He received this choice from the doctor, “We cannot help your memory without impairing your eyesight. Now the choice is yours. Would you rather be able to see or to remember?” The man thoughtfully replied, “Frankly, I’d rather have my eyesight than my memory. You see, I’d rather see where I’m going than remember where I’ve been.” Our perspective in life is something unique to each of us, and it is very difficult to see things through another person’s eyes. However, there are ways to change our perspective.
Like the man who had to choose between eyesight and memory, we might be well advised to be more concerned with where we are going than where have been. God is asking us to do something very remarkable, to live here while our thoughts are somewhere else. It’s the dilemma of being a Christian in an often hostile and wicked world.
So now, here we are, waiting and waiting and wondering how long we can hold out and be good. What does this mean to our relationships while we wait? For one thing, we have to get along the best we can, we have to coexist with others, Christians or not, in a way that demonstrates our faith. In all our relationships there are traits we are to adopt and practice so that others see Christ through us.
Humility, kindness, mercy, generosity, love and inspiration are just a few of the qualities that made Christ’s life one to imitate. All of these qualities culminate into a proper perspective of life, love and relationship as they are now during this waiting period. There is no greater calling for us than to be imitators of Christ. Millions of people worldwide do not know the Savior we know, nor do many of them want to.
Our part in revealing the truth of Christ is one of the most important elements in our faith. In our Lenten study this year we are discovering how to give up those bad things residing in each of us, things that alienate us from each other, even, or maybe especially, those people we do not even know.
This past week we discussed how being judgmental actually creates a distance or separation from others. Jesus taught that we should not judge for with the same measure we use to judge others, we will be judged by God. In a world so obviously polarized there is no room for us to distance ourselves from others.
Paul spoke of enemies of the cross, nonbelievers who want to see us bicker and complain and judge. They want to see us lose our cool and our composure and our Christianity. They may remark that our actions do not exemplify a very Christian attitude, and unfortunately, often times they are right.
Enemies of the cross fail to see what’s waiting for us, fail to see what’s ahead because they can’t see it. For whatever reason they cannot believe the teachings of Christianity and so they scoff. They remind me of the Charlie Brown Halloween story, the one where spunky little Linus spends the night in the pumpkin patch waiting for the Great Pumpkin, a kind of Santa Claus figure who rewards good children. The other children did not believe like Linus did and so they hurled insults at him and questioned the sincerity of his pumpkin patch.
Now you and I know that there is no such thing as the Great Pumpkin, but I imagine that our claims of a man who was both divine and human dying to save the world and then coming back to life sounds just about like a childish fantasy to those who have no faith. Again, it’s a matter of perspective. Paul said also that people who don’t believe in the cross have their minds of earthly things. There will always be people like that, and we will encounter them until we are no longer on this earth. They are not seeing clearly what we see.
But how wonderful it would be if we could be the ones to change their perspective. If our behavior and our conversation would be centered on Jesus, would show the world whose hands we have placed our lives in, it could change the world. The thing preventing us from doing so is that we also, at times, do not see what those Paul called enemies of the cross do not see. Those are the times we take our eyes off of Christ.
The apostle Paul wrote to believers in Philippi to remember that our citizenship is in heaven. In older translations the word citizenship appears as conversation, both of which in Greek are politeuma, from which we get the English word politics. If we conducted our conversation and our politics like we were in heaven, what a wonderful world it would truly be. Instead, we often have difficulty keeping our conversation polite because we forget who we are.
We live in this world as citizens of another place; much like the English lived in colonies across the world. They weren’t part of the place in which they lived, but they represented the place where their citizenship was found. As citizens of heaven, our relationships with others should be reflections of heaven. We need to view the broken earth from the glory not yet revealed. That glory is presently hidden in clay jars, in these thin, brittle containers of ourselves and our relationships.
As one commentator said, “And, because our citizenship is there, our conversation is there; being related to that world, we keep up a correspondence with it.” Until we are there we must heed Paul’s advice and stand firm in the Lord. Part of being able to stand firm means seeing other people from a new perspective. We should look at nonbelievers with compassion and do what we can to witness to them. With fellow believers we have to use an even closer lens, not to magnify their faults, but to bring into focus the changes that God is making in their lives.
Living faithfully would be easy if we were all alone in the world, but that would defeat the purpose of a Christian unity, wouldn’t it? Maybe this story offers us a solution for our problem.
Stu Clark belongs to what is believed to be the smallest small group in America. He is the only member, “I meet at my house every week,” he says. “I bring snacks and my Bible and after some chitchat I get down to discussing that week’s reading, sharing my burdens and my joys. Then I pray for myself.” He enjoys the intimacy he has gained with himself over the weeks. “There was a lot about me I didn’t know,” says Stu. “The small group setting brings out those personal details you might not otherwise share.” He has tried larger groups but doesn’t get at much from them.
“When you have to be social, it detracts from your real heart issues,” he says. “Having other people in the picture complicates things. But I can deepen my relationship with myself much better if it’s only me. There’s a level of closeness you have when it’s just one of you.” Stu’s pastor has seen a marked difference in the man. “He has definitely matured in his faith since starting the group. I guess it’s not the size of the group that matters, but the quality of the people in it.”
Well, that ridiculous spoof explains a lot, doesn’t it? Having other people in the picture certainly does complicate things. One day Adam was calling Eve bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and the next day he was calling her “the woman you gave to me” and blaming her for his downfall. The good news is that God has given us a wealth of wisdom in His word about dealing with other people. Solutions for our fragile friendships and rickety relationships appear throughout Scripture again and again. We are called to bear with each other, forgive one another, keep our unity, and not to give in to anger or bitterness.
Beyond all that advice, there is something more. We are meant to see each other as new creations, not just as we are now, but also as we will be. I think our difficulty in accepting the faults and failures of others is that we are so keenly and painfully aware of our own. As anyone knows, there is no such thing as a perfect church. If there were, none of us would be allowed in! But there is one unchangeable rule that Paul wants the church to follow, and that is to expose everything to the light that shines from the revelation of God in Christ Jesus.
You see, Paul thought that if you are going to be a Christian, then you should be like Jesus. To be a Christian is to love, to care, to give, to serve, to suffer, to sacrifice as Jesus did. Though Paul would be the first to say that he has not gotten there yet, he is dedicated to making that his one, overarching life goal. Being like Jesus is the one thing on his mind, all the time.
Is it possible for us to see a glimpse of the real someone in the people we view every day? What I mean is, can we have a heavenly preview of those we love, and those we like, and more importantly, those we merely tolerate? We have more in common than we realize. Last night I watched Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, one of my favorite films. I thought about this message and I think Sidney Poirier’s character captured perspective in his line, “You see yourself as a colored man. I see myself as man.”
Remember that we are all clay jars and inside is God’s glory waiting to be revealed. Clay jars are fragile, so we must handle with care those people who make up our lives. We also have to look at ourselves in a new way, because we are also in the same holding pattern of incomplete transformation. If we think of ourselves as incomplete, as models in need of improvement, as works in progress, then we begin to understand how God views us. Even though we are forgiven and blessed, we still need work.
The finished product is yet to be seen; the perfection we are seeking has yet to be revealed. Even so, it is up to us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to be open to the changes needed. Please understand, I’m not harping on anyone’s faults or weaknesses or bad habits. I’m chief among sinners standing before you, recognizing that there are those days when even I can’t stand my own company.
There is an exercise I learned at annual conference a few years ago, demonstrated by a member of our conference clergy who is also a clinical psychologist. She had us think of someone close to us or maybe a casual acquaintance. She asked us to write down two personality traits about that person that we find annoying; in other words, two negative traits, like superficial and gossipy.
Then below those two traits she had us write two positive words about ourselves, such as genuine and humble. Around all four words she asked us to draw a circle with a line separating the two negative words from the two positive words. Then she had us think of two words to describe the way we would want God to deal with us, for example, loving and forgiving. After this was done she dropped the bomb. The two negative traits of someone else, she told us, were also traits that were present in us. The reason they bother us is because we subconsciously recognize them in ourselves.
Likewise, the positive traits we describe in ourselves are also present in that other person, but we subconsciously suppress our recognition of them because we are focused on the negative. The two words describing the way we would like God to deal with us are two ways in which we need to respond to this other person.
She then led us through a verbal exercise meant to help us focus our thoughts on healing our relationships. It goes like this: “When I encounter gossip and superficiality, I vow, with the body of Christ, to breathe and respond with love and forgiveness.” You would, of course, replace the two negative traits I listed for those you identify in someone in your life. When you get home you might want to pray about that person who comes to mind first when you think of negative traits, then do this exercise and remind yourself of how you are called to respond to them.
By faith, not by sight, take hold of the one who is coming, and of the work He will finish once He gets here. Live today as a citizen of heaven. Practice today what you’ll inherit forever. And when you find yourself struggling with anyone – close friend, spouse, children, or stranger – look at the situation from the heavenly point of view in which the problems are resolved rather than the earthly setting in which you struggle. Perspective makes all the distance.
