I read recently of a woman who took her troubles and anxieties into the
loneliness of her apartment and as she pondered and nursed them, they
grew and grew until they became gigantically out of proportion. Perspective.
The story is told of an African bushman on his first flight in an aeroplane. Looking down on the open grassland, he was informed that the little black dots he could see were elephants. "No, they can't be" he responded, "they are not big enough to be elephants, they must be ants". Perspective.
When Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan, the majority report that came back to Moses was that they were people of gigantic stature "and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them" (Numbers 13:33). Perspective.
And so to the series of rhetorical questions that the Apostle Paul asks in his letter to the church at Rome: "If God is for us, who can be against us? He
who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he
not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who
is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was
raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for
us. Who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword?" (Romans 8:31-35). Perspective.
The good news for those who, by the grace of God, have been adopted into the family of God through faith in Jesus and reception of the Spirit of God is that everything becomes reoriented. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39). Perspective.
Gonna tell you a story that you've probably heard
And at the risk of being redundant
I'm gonna tell you something
That may not thrill you but it could not hurt
Well it comes out of the sacred writings of the Israelites
It's the story of David and how he slew Goliath
Well the king of his country didn't trust in him much
And so to David's alarm he tried to fit him in his armour
But the thing was so heavy David couldn't stand up
So he left it by the river
where he gathered five smooth stones
I guess it's safe to say he figured
he wasn't going out alone
What trouble are giants?
What's wrong with being small?
Well the bigger they come -you know the harder they fall
When you're fighting for Zion and you're on the Lord's side
I think you're gonna find they ain't no trouble at all
Well there must have been some laughter
among the Philistines
At the sight of this scrawny little shepherd
coming out to meet the record-
breaking mamoth of a man who was a killing machine
But it didn't shake David,
well he was smart enough to know
It's more the size of who you put your faith in
Than the size of your foe
(Rich Mullins)
Perpective.
Posted by: beth | 02 July 2009 at 08:10 PM