Question 1

How do I discover and change my perspective?

Accepted Answer

Numbers 17:12-13Then the people of Israel said to Moses, “Look, we are doomed! We are dead! We are ruined! Everyone who even comes close to the Tabernacle of the Lord dies. Are we all doomed to die?”An unexpected shock can reveal the need for a changed perspective. Our perspectives can often fail to reflect reality. Instead of seeing the Tabernacle as a place to go to because God was there, God’s people had begun to see it as a place to avoid. Instead of seeing God’s presence as healing and life-giving, they had come to see his presence as terrifying and destructive. How did they come to this perspective? Their perspective of God became negative because they had chosen to disobey him, leading to the painful consequences of sin. Obeying God is life’s greatest accomplishment because it keeps us focused on what’s important, it leads us to fulfill God’s will, and it gives us an eternal perspective to guide our daily choices. When we drift away from consistent obedience to God, we lose our eternal perspective. Our daily choices become more selfish, and we slide more and more toward being cynical and dissatisfied with God. But if we make time with God our first priority, we will find that he gives us perspective on our activities each day and a greater desire to obey him as we see the rewards of obedience. Ask God to show you what is worth being concerned about.Luke 10:40-41Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!”When we become angry about an apparent injustice, we may actually need to change our own perspective about the situation. Martha became so caught up the tasks of hospitality that she failed to see that stopping to give personal attention to her guest was most important. Our own perspectives need to include the priorities that are most pleasing to God.Mark 4:35-38As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”Terror can reveal the need for us to change our perspective. Because the disciples’ view of Jesus was still limited, they looked at their dangerous circumstances as the only thing that really mattered. They needed to learn to share Jesus’ unworried perspective about events around them. When we are with Jesus, we also have his loving power at our disposal.

Question 2

What are the blessings of seeing others from God’s perspective?

Accepted Answer

Luke 13:28-30“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the Kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out. And people will come from all over the world—from east and west, north and south—to take their places in the Kingdom of God. And note this: Some who seem least important now will be the greatest then, and some who are the greatest now will be least important then.”Jesus taught that many big surprises await us in his Kingdom. We may find many people there we didn’t expect to see, and many absent we expected would be there. And many people may indeed be surprised to see us there! In these verses, Jesus pictures people of impeccable spiritual pedigree on the outside looking in, not only at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets, but also at a mob of spiritual nobodies (non-Jewish people) from all over the world. Jesus is not only rebuking our presumptions and biases here, but also challenging us to see people from his perspective. We must realize that our spiritual status doesn’t come from culturally-defined goodness, but by receiving God’s grace. People are marked as God’s not by religiosity, but by receiving God’s forgiveness and reflecting his goodness. How often have we turned away from reaching out to others we wrongly presumed were beyond God’s saving help!Matthew 5:43-48“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”In many situations, seeing others from God’s perspective will keep us from treating other people the wrong way. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus highlighted widely held perspectives about murder, adultery, divorce, making vows, showing justice, and loving one’s neighbor (Matthew 5:21-48). He challenged each of these perspectives by broadening them and deepening them in ways that still transform our perspectives today. We are blessed whenever we replace our faulty human perspectives with God’s perfect perspectives.

Perspective