It’s easy to become buried… when your back aches, your new project fails, your children scream, you feel behind on everything, your house cracks, your dog dies… Fill in whatever here, I am sure you get it. When things in the world seem to be more and more pressing or more and more gloomy. When you feel like you are stuffed in a box and can’t breathe. when you feel like a person surrounded by a sea of people and can’t be heard. When you just want to raise your white flag and walk away in defeat…

We all react to things that hurt, we all respond differently when we are under stress or feel terrible. Our responses are sometimes private and sometimes public; they will vary from a simple voiced complaint, to chronic Eeyore-ism, or even a complete modern day version of ripping clothing and covering with ashes… We react… We react sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. We react… What does living differently have to do with this reaction? A lot. One thing you have to get:  Reactions are a giant reflection of our character. Whose character do you reflect?

My husband and I still enjoy playing video games. I think it may have been the years of working with youth; we still hold on to it. We have recently started playing the newest Mario game. It’s much different from the original Nintendo in many ways. The biggest difference is that it’s not flat its 3D. This adds a whole new element to the game because it requires some different movements; which takes a while to get used to. Here’s the deal, there are points along the way where this fairy offers us an opportunity to look through their binoculars and see a fuller picture. From this vantage point you can see what direction you need to go, what you need to avoid, and where your goal is.

What if you had life binoculars? What if you could just walk up to a fairy and ask to see the path of your life, where the end goal is, where to avoid, and what to pick-up along the way? That sounds awesome… But we all know reality isn’t like that… or maybe you would respond like I do in Mario; there is no way I will make it that far without some divine intervention,… warning here comes a freak out and a bunch o’ fear… There is a reason God doesn’t show us every step and every piece a head of time… We need God’s vantage point on situations, not so we can see where we are headed or what He is doing in a particular situation, but so our character reflects well.

Breaking news if you are a believer you have binoculars….and not excuse to look from God’s vantage point…

The apostle Paul wrote much about the character and attitude of someone who claims to follow Christ. The most striking to me, as of late, is an example from his own life. Paul was in prison, a nasty Roman prison, where he had to rely on generosity of others even to eat. Paul was put there for sharing who Christ was with others. Yet in this time Paul wrote about rejoicing. Not because things were good or because he drank too much prison kool-aid, but because the truth of Christ was going out.  Paul’s life was in a terrible spot, with what seemed like no hope. Yet he wrote of hope of Christ’s return. He wrote that if he continued to live, even though death was a better option, that it was for the gospel. He urges the Philippian believers to live their lives in a manner worthy of the truth of Christ… he tells them to speak about it fearlessly, to be one with other believers, to love others, to be lights in our world, to not be frightened by opposition… Why? Because from God’s vantage point it’s all about the work of Christ in the lives of others.

Living differently means that I adjust my attitude to God’s Vantage point…It’s all about Christ.. How am I reflecting Him?

So how do we respond when things are a mess? When our loved ones drive us batty? When our health puts us in a pit? When our plans flop? When our hearts break? When our kids struggle?… We stop. Remind ourselves our lives are buried and made alive in Christ. We pray, we cry, we have a love/hate feast of scripture, we ask for help… But then we stop and see it’s all about the gospel.  God’s character is unquestionably strong..He is faithful to His children..He gives us the good and perfect gifts… When we don’t see what He’s doing and we can’t see our end goal… It doesn’t matter… We can trust Him. When we look at things only from the wrong vantage point, our own, we create a giant mess; and others clearly see it….Whether we live or die it’s about Christ… When you look through the binoculars His redemptive work is all over it… it’s all you should see.

Living differently means that I adjust my attitude to God’s Vantage point…It’s all about Christ.. How am I reflecting Him?