PERSPECTIVE,
IMPORTANCE OF
WHEN the quarterback goes to the sidelines during a game and you see him put headphones over his ears, guess what he’s doing? He’s talking to the man in the booth, the offensive or defensive coordinator. Why? Because they are always situated up high looking low. The ability of the quarterback to function on the field, call the right plays, and read the right defenses is limited because he’s too low in the ground. He is dependent on the perspective of somebody who’s not low like he is. He makes a connection up high with somebody who sees the big picture.
In fact, it has become so sophisticated today in football that they now have a diagram of the defenses on the computer where they can see the limitations right in front of them. There are cameras situated at the top of the stadium that are taking reads of what’s happening on the field. The more the quarterback is in touch with what the coordinator knows up high, the better he can deal with the team trying to stop him down on the field.
Satan is trying to stop you down here. However, God sits high but looks low. If you don’t know how to pick up the headphones and get a reading from on high, you will be tackled in the backfield of life every time.683
[God’s Perspective; Satan; Sin, Avoidance of]
Eph. 2:6; Heb. 4:13
THERE was a boy who was looking at the reflection of the moon glistening in a pond. A friend of his threw a stone into the pond and the water began to ripple. The boy said, “What happened to the moon?” For the stone in the pond so rippled the water that he could no longer see the reflection of the moon and it looked like the moon was gone.
His older friend said, “When you can’t see the moon in the pond, stop looking at the pond and look up to the moon because the moon hasn’t gone anywhere.”684
[Worship, Benefit of]
2 Cor. 4:18; James 5:13
I LIVE down in a bit of a gully. Awhile back, I had a TV put in but couldn’t seem to get a clear picture. I was fiddling with knobs and couldn’t get anything to work. I called the company from whom I’d bought the TV and asked them to come out and assist me in getting it working. The repairman fiddled with knobs and couldn’t get anything working either. Eventually, scratching his head, he asked if he could go on top of our roof. He went up there and tried to fool with the antenna. Still nothing. He kept on twisting, turning, and tweaking. Our view on the TV went from hazy to completely straight. When the man came down from the roof, I expected him to tell me that the problem was with the antenna. He surprised me when he told me that the problem was the location of my house! Because my house is located in the gully and high trees surround us, our location basically blocked our reception of the signal. The repairman actually got a long pole from his truck, took the antenna off, put the pole directly onto the roof, then added the antenna to the pole so that the antenna would rise high enough above the trees to get a signal.
The problem was not the set. The problem was not the antenna. The problem was my location. If you’ve been turning knobs in your life for years and your life won’t get into focus, the problem might be your location. Are you living in heavenly places?685
[Heavenly Mind-set; Life, Perspective on]
Eph. 1:3
A MAN was getting his windshield washed and wiped at the filling station. When the attendant finished doing his windshield, the man said, “Terrible job! Redo my windshield. That windshield’s as dirty as when you started.”
The filling station attendant wiped it again.
The man in the car looked it over, and then in frustration said, “My goodness! Can’t you even clean a windshield? This window has not changed.”
The attendant did it again.
The man’s wife was sitting next to him in the car, fuming. She reached over, pulled off his glasses, wiped them, and gave them back to him. The attendant had been doing his job correctly. The man himself was the problem all along.686
[Perspective]
2 Cor. 4:18; 5:7
A FATHER had two twin boys. He loved his boys but they had two different orientations. One boy was very negative. He found something wrong with everything. He always perceived the glass as half empty. The other son was positive. He found something right with everything.
The father was trying to figure his two boys out. He wanted to know what made them tick. So he decided to test them a bit. He put the negative boy in a room with all the toys any boy could dream of. He set him up to have a good time. He put the other boy, the positive one, in a stinky, stenchy roomful of horse manure—truly a negative situation. Then the father stepped back to see how each of his boys would react.
He came back an hour later to check on each one of his sons. He looked in on the negative boy. The young lad was sitting over in a corner with his thumb in his mouth. “Dad, I’m bored! Some of the toys that I wanted I don’t even see in here.” Even in a perfect toy environment for a kid, this boy found something to be negative about. This was his mind-set.
The father went over to the other son’s room—the positive one. This son had a shovel and was digging through the manure! The father looked at his son in disbelief and said, “Son, what are you doing?”
“Oh Dad, I’m digging through the horse manure.”
“Why are you digging through all that stench?”
The little boy paused and said thoughtfully, “Well, I figured with all of this manure, there’s got to be a pony under here somewhere.”
So today, if you’re in a stinky situation keep digging. There’s a purpose down there somewhere. There’s a destiny down there somewhere! There’s the will of God down there somewhere. You keep digging; don’t let that stinky situation throw you off. Keep digging until God reveals His destiny for your life.687
[Life, Perspective on]
Rom. 8:28; James 1:2–4