God Moments

Yesterday was not one of those Jesus mornings. You know the kind--your skinny jeans fit, birds are flittering around outside your window, and your hair is doing that "beautiful with ease" thing you always want it to do, but it never usually does.

No, yesterday was not like that. Yesterday found me late to class, parking in some random resident parking spot on campus because the faculty lot was full, and sloshing through the rain with a cold. I was really, really trying to have a good attitude, y'all. But the papers I spent all day grading yesterday were getting rain-splattered, and my shoulder was starting to hurt from the weight of carrying my giant literature anthology around. (Side note: why do I always choose those heavy anthologies?) So, I'm having a little pitty party for myself all the way to class, thinking things like, "Great, now I'm late, and my students are going to say all kinds of horrible things about me on my course evals next week. Not to mention, my pants are all wet from the rain. Not to mention, I have a cold, people. Shouldn't I be able to find a decent parking spot when I have a cold? And no matter that, shouldn't I be able to find a decent parking spot period? Shouldn't they have enough faculty parking available for all teachers?" By the time I got to class, I was out of breath and frazzled.

Do you ever feel like that? It's so easy to compare ourselves to others, or even to our own "highlight reel" of good behavior. Have you ever found that when your day starts of rushed, or you have a bad attitude, you have trouble stepping out of that funk?

Here's what I think the problem is. We get so focused on what's going wrong around us, we lose sight of what is going right. Trouble is real. To deny problems and mistakes and challenges is to deny the redemptive power of Christ that is strong enough to pull us through those things. We shouldn't bury our heads in the sand and pretend things are perfect if they're not. However, the battle going on in our mind is not just about whether or not we are thinking sinful thoughts. That's such a small part of it. The battle is about whether or not we are consciously putting ourselves in a state of awareness of the presence of God.

In other words, God is present in every situation, so there is always a reason to rejoice.

We have a choice in every moment.

We can choose thankfulness, or we can choose to look at what is going wrong. But when we choose to look at the burdens of this world, we become heavy laden with them. Pretty soon, we're hunched over and out of breath. We're looking around, trying to figure out where we went wrong.

When all along, God has so much more in store for us. So much beauty in the world, so much redemption, so much peace... if only we would open our eyes to see it.

Source: ariansstudio.blogspot.com via Cassandra on Pinterest

Philippians 4:8

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Psalm 100:4
New King James Version (NKJV)

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Perspective

Today has been one of those afternoons where things have been bothering me. Do you ever have those days? In my first class, one of my students was rude to me in front of the rest of the class, then I went to renew my campus parking pass, and it cost me $85! To park at my job. Students kept running out in front of my car as I was trying to get to and from class, and I just felt frustrated.

Then I looked around.

What a beautiful afternoon! Birds were chirping, the temperature was perfect, and things in my world were just generally good. Am I a little stressed this week trying to get everything done? Yes, but why is that? Because I have editor interest in my book. My book. How long have I been working toward this moment, and yet I allow my joy to be tempered by the most stupid things.

I had planned to blog about a different topic today, but I changed my mind when I began thinking about the power of perspective in our lives. Look at this picture I found of a subway stop. The stairs are called perspective art.

My question is... why spend so much time looking at the ground when God has built a staircase in front of us?

When we allow distractions to cloud our minds, they change our perspective and get it out of whack. We can no longer see what we ought to be seeing. We lose sight of our purpose, our heart, God's plans. We lose sight of the staircase we can only through faith be walking upon.

One of my best friends in the entire world is saying goodbye to her husband tomorrow for nine months because he is deploying to Afghanistan. She doesn't know how often she'll be able to talk to him because she won't know until he gets there what the internet and phone connections are like.

When I think of that, suddenly the rude comment my student made earlier seems so small, and I am humbled by the blessings God has allowed in my life.  

When we reframe our perspective, it allows us to see God's heart. I'm convinced this is why the Bible commands us in Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."

What we think about forms our hearts. And what's in our hearts forms our lives. If we're too busy looking at the problems in our lives, or our faults, or the faults of others, we will miss out on the big picture of what God wants to do through our lives. We'll miss out on opportunities, ministry, and the hearts He wants to change... including our own.

I love Rothko artwork for this reason. It challenges our perspective. When you look at this work, where does our eye go? How is this like our perspective on life?

Photos from http://haha.nu/creative/perspective-art-at-a-subway/ and
http://www.abstract-art.com/abstraction/l2_grnfthrs_fldr/g051_rothko.html