Update Your Perspective

I am in the process of building a new BrokenToBreathless. I'm planning the launch in October. Having said that, the first week of this project did not go well. I had used the same format years ago, but things have changed since then --including me. I seem to have developed an impatient, sort of get-to-the-point approach to doing things. Maybe it's because I've been blogging for so long, I'd rather not deal with the hiccoughs that come with new technology or learning new technology; I'd rather update things without having to update my perspective. Somehow, I don't think that's going to work.

Life is all about updates, isn't it? We learn to walk, we go to school, we graduate. With every milestone we move closer to the person we were meant to be. Or at least, that's how it's supposed to work. Sometimes the updates we experience are not the upgrades we prefer. A new medication to add to our seemingly never-ending list of expenses; the death of a parent that leaves us not only grieving but mired in difficult family debates; a job transfer only months before our planned retirement date. Easy to adjust our perspective when things are heading in the direction we approve, but to be told, You just need to accept it, or You're going to have to rework your plan... those are not the things we want to hear, especially if you're one of those strong-willed people like me.

But God! When we trust God with the events, circumstances, and "updates" of life, it really doesn't matter the specifics, what those things look like, or when they occur, we are not in them alone, nor are they the tragic end to our story. Scripture assures us "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (Rom. 8:28) In other words, as we experience those changes, we can actually rejoice that God is doing something. Whatever the situation, if we trust God's plan for us, we have to trust the circumstances associated with that plan, we have to trust the "updates" He allows. Difficulty, failures, pain, loss --certainly not upgrades as far as we're concerned, but hear what Jesus says in Luke 6:20-23:

Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man’s sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.

He has just rolled out all these things no one wants to be: poor, hungry, sorrowful, hated, excluded, slandered. And then He says Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! People have been hostile toward one another since Adam (If you don't believe me, read how he threw his wife and her Creator under the bus in Genesis 3:12), and the world is under a curse. Children of God or not, we are going to face some of the same things those who reject Him face; the sun rises on the evil and the good, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. But it's our perspective, our relationship to the God of all creation that will make the difference, that will enable us to rejoice or will cause us to give up. If we see ourselves as alone, victimized, persecuted, without hope or purpose, unforgiven (or unforgiveable), overwhelmed, trapped, or without hope, if we see the things that take place around us as bearing some sort of inescapable leverage over who we are or were meant to be, we will abandon the project; we will give up. But if we keep our eyes on the One who loves us and is working all things together for our benefit, our perspective with regard to life's "updates" will take on an accuracy we never dreamed possible. We will see things as Truth Himself sees them; we will interact with others as Love Himself interacts with others; we will experience life as Peace Himself experiences life! 

That's more than an update, that's a definite upgrade!